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Legging It

I sometimes receive pieces of finished garments in my Fabscrap orders, and the last one brought this single leg from a pair of jeans to my sewing table. The fabric is a very smooth, soft denim-like synthetic, and print reminds me of frost patterns in winter, so I decided to upcycle it.

First I opened the straight inside seam to see how much fabric I had to work with. Jeans are usually double or triple-stitched, so it took about an hour to unpick.

After trimming the top evenly I had a nice piece of fabric to reuse. I folded it in half and got an idea for a French market-style project bag.

It's tempting to square everything, I know, but jeans are sewn slightly on a slant and don't usually lay flat when opened along one seam (which was the case with my one-leg.) Instead I decided to wrap the wider side of the piece around and sew it on a diagonal to make a wider top for the bag.

That worked out great, as you can see from the finished bag. I could disguise the center seam on both sides with a piece of lace, but I decided to leave it as it looked more interesting. You can definitely tell my bag was once a pant leg. :)

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