Oversized denim bag

So I was thinking about what to do for an upcoming birthday gift, when I looked through a Linky Thursday post from Stacy Sews.  And there I saw it: the Hobo/Sling Bag tutorial from Morning by Morning Productions. And I thought, cool!  That looks like a fun yet practical gift!  I really wanted to find a long leather skirt to make one in leather (as she does in part 2), but no such luck was with me during the thrift store hunt.  Alas....maybe later.  I'll keep an eye out in the future.  But until then, the long denim skirts would have to do.  This one was made from a denim skirt that looked like those skirts that are made by splitting the inseams of jeans, then adding some fabric in the middle.  I don't think it was actually made that way, judging by the consistency of the thread color throughout the entire skirt - I just think it was made to look like those, which is why there's the diagonal seam in the lower right.

I cut off the waistband to help the skirt lie flatter, also removing the zipper fly - I have a friend who reuses old but working jeans zippers and wants to use the belt loops in a project, so I'm saving those for her.  I removed the back pockets and the coin pocket, then folded the skirt so that I could cut each piece on a fold.  Before sewing the pieces together, I stitched the pockets back onto the bag but in more useful places.  I couldn't find rivets I liked, so I ended up with decorative flower eyelets.  (They'll also show up on the next one - the smallest packet I could find had 50 pairs.)

The "lining" was made from a striped sheet I found months ago at the thrift store.  I was thinking originally of boy PJ pants from this - but there's plenty left, I think.  There's no mention made of interfacing, but I decided that since I don't know what will go in the pockets, it would be best to use some lightweight interfacing over the back of the lining piece.  It doesn't cover the entire piece - just a few inches around the pocket.  I managed to line up the stripes on the pocket really well on this side - not so much on the other. ;) I really like how it turned out, though!