All right, I've figured out how to make the knock off bootie bag. Here's a very brief tutorial. I don't have a picture for every step so I will to explain in detail:
1. I used a girl's size 7 jeans that I picked up cheap at a thrift store.
2. I took the lid from an old shoe box and trimmed off the vertical edges. I then set the trimmed lid into the seat of the jeans so that it would stand upright and give me a rectangle base to work with.
3. Now, time to cut the jeans. Cut off one leg of the jeans, but leave about two inches or so below the crotch area. Now, pull the short leg up inside of the jeans seat. I didn't cut enough in these pictures, but you get the point.
4. Cut the other leg of the jeans off, but it should still be fairly long.
5. Fold this leg up under the seat. You should have a couple of inches sticking out. If there is too much, then cut it off so that it looks like this:
6. This is the part where you really have to play with it a bit to get it to look right. You will have to fold the sides of the leg up underneath the seat so that the front crotch and back crotch areas are flush with the sides of the leg. Also, fold in the end of the leg so that it is flush with the side of the bag.
7. At this point, get out the glue gun and glue down the folds you've made, then glue down the seat to the folded leg, making sure that all sides are even. Glue everything down as tight as you can. I had to use the glue gun here, my machine just isnt up to sewing these kinds of thicknesses.
Sorry I don't have pictures for the next steps.
8. Take one of the discarded pants legs and cut 4 small strips to make loops. These loops are to hold in the purse handles. If you sew your own handles, you would just pin them in (upside down) and then sew (like in the jordy bag tutorial
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=19288.0), but if you use the beaded handles you need to put one strip through each handle loop (sorry don't know the proper terminology) and then pin into the waist of the seat where you want the handles to go. At this point, I went ahead and stitched them in one at a time.
9. Lining - I cut my lining to the approximate size of the jeans seat - left to right side being the width and top of waistline to bottom of crotch being the height. I cut two pieces of these and one piece that was the size of the shoe box lid (remember the shoe box lid?). Sew these together like the lining was done in the skipping bag tutorial
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=12104.0, only instead of one of the short sides being left unstitched, make sure you leave one of the long sides unstitched. This work better for me due to the type of handles that I used.
10. Turn your jeans seat wrong side out (don't forget to take out the shoe box lid here) and turn the handles of the bag to the inside. Place your lining inside the jeans bag. Make sure that the right sides of the two materials are facing each other.
11. (My sewing machine just about had a cow at this point) Stitch the pieces together at the top, all the way around.
12. Turn everything right side out by pulling everything through the long side of the lining that was left unstitched. Go ahead and put the shoe box lid back into the bottom of the bag.
13. Here is where I deviated from the original bag - I cut four pieces of plastic canvas (cause that's what I had lying around) to the same size as the front side of the bag, then glued two of them together for the front and two together for the back. I put both between my liner and the denim
before I completed the lining. Then, I stitched up my lining and put it into the bag.
14. Last step, I cut two pieces of fabric to make a belt. Measure the length of the waist and add about four or five inches. Fold in the edges of each piece, then place them wrong sides together (good sides will be out) and sew them together (don't forget to tuck then ends in). Run the belt through the loops and tie a simple knot. There. You're done. Time to show off your bootie bag knockoff!
This is my first tutorial, so if I missed a step or something is confusing, just ask me and I'll try to explain a little better! Henri
