I made one of these recently for Averia for the Good Little Things swap. I used the legs of one of my husbands cast off jeans and the back pockets to make a sturdy work bag, with riveted leather handles.
I embroidered the outer pockets with a gears theme, using metallic DMC cotton floss - FYI - embroidering denim by hand kind of sucks
But the jeans make for a nice sturdy work bag, and I would rather reuse the fabric rather than throw them out - other bits have been used for making things like denim dog toys and at some point I would like to make a scrappy denim crazy quilt.
Anyways - more about this specific bag on a recent blog post, and if anyone wants to know how I made these bags, I put instructions here, because I made them for jemimah in an earlier swap at that place.
I was thinking how messy it looks compared to a nice thin, smooth cotton! Also, you should see my finger - thank goodness it’s the one I cut and had stitched a couple of years ago - never damage = less pain!
Oooh oooh my bag! The embroidery on this is lovely - and the pocket is fully functional. This bag is so very useful as well as pretty. Thank you @Onyxnox!
So glad you do like it @Averia. I was going to do embroidered tea towels, but was walking by the pile of clothes I told Jim to keep by for me to craft with, after stalking you for a bit, and I thought a work bag would be a good idea, especially as I wanted to try embroidering on denim.
@Magpie - the finger is OK - what I am realizing is that I use it a lot, and now that I have less feeling in it, I actually have to look to make sure I am not puncturing it too much Oh well - maybe I actually need to start using a thimble - though I kind of hate the feel of them.
I’m impressed that you not only embroidered such a stitch heavy image on denim, but that you did it on a pocket. I’m guessing that you couldn’t use a hoop, which would have made it even more challenging!
Thanks! Actually, I did use a hoop! What I did was I removed the denim pocket from the jeans, and pinned it to a piece of cotton, which was mounted on a hoop. I embroidered the piece onto the denim, through the cotton, then when it was done, I trimmed the cotton as close to the stitches as possible, and sewed the pocket onto the jean leg, before making the bag.
