Pants Bag Tutorial

August 13, 2010

I had this cute pair of capri pants the girls used to wear. Apparently, they wore them out. There was a stain on the rump and I couldn’t hand them down to my nieces and I couldn’t sell them.

So I kept them. That’s the logical thing to do with stained pants, right? See, now you are understanding more why these random pants on the street are calling to me. Anyway, I couldn’t part with this little pair of pants. I loved the retro feel to the fabric and the colors.

The other day I was thinking I needed a fancier bag to carry around the story dice and figured I would make a simple drawstring bag for them. I decided to use these pants to make a bag. This was really easy to make and works great for a small bag. I’m thinking about making more to carry crayons for waiting with the kids at the doctor’s office or when we are out to eat. The crayons are great to have when waiting at the doctor because they can draw all over the white paper covering the exam table.
The size of the bag will vary depending on the size of the pants. These were a size 2T, maybe 18-24 months.

Since this pair had a straight leg and didn’t taper, they worked great for the bag. I cut one leg off.

I then cut from the top, down one of the side seams about 1.5 inches. I didn’t measure. Then I folded the fabric back into the leg of the pants to finish off the edge. Using an iron will help make a nice crease to hold the fabric in place for stitching.

After folding the raw seam towards the inside of the leg, I stitched along the sides where I folded.

The to make the casing for the drawstring, I folded in the top about 1/4 inch and pressed. I then folded the top down until the fold I made reached the top of the side opening. Then I stitched along the bottom to form the casing. Then I turned the whole thing inside out and stitched the bottom closed along the original hem line.

I ran some ribbon through the casing at the top and tied a knot in each end. I filled it with goodies and now we have a handy little bag. As a bonus, it’s fun that it reminds me of when my girls wore these pants.

Now, since it’s Friday, I’m hoping you will share with me something that made your day or week magical for My Magic Friday! Either link up something from your blog or leave me a comment!

<a href=”http://www.mymagicmom.com” mce_href=”http://www.mymagicmom.com”><img src=”http://mymagicmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/buttonfriday.jpg” mce_src=”http://mymagicmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/buttonfriday.jpg” alt=”My Magic Friday Button” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

I link to these parties.

Posted in Sewing, Tutorials