I love getting damaged textiles to work with, it challenges me to work with materials that I otherwise wouldn't pick out thrifting! This pair of cargo pants came from a neighborhood buy nothing group's round robin bin cleanout. They have ugly red paint stains all over the back so nobody wanted them! I thought about adding some cool patches to cover them, but I wasn't sure if they would be able to find a home in their mended state.
After evaluating the construction, I found that I could easily make a pair of lined drawstring bags from the drawstring cuffs instead!
Supplies
Cargo pants or pants/shirt with drawstring cuffs
Fabric for lining, mine is a cotton bedsheet
Zipper foot, if adding a pocket with metal hardware
General sewing supplies
To start, determine how deep you will want your bag to be. You might be limited like I am by a side seam pocket or paint stains but I made mine as deep as possible! Cut at the height you want, remember to include a seam allowance! I turned the pants inside out so I could cut my seams as straight as possible.
About halfway through this project I decided to add a back pocket from the pants but you would want to add it now instead of later! Cut out the pocket you want to use. Mine has a cool flap so I needed to cut out the entire fabric holding the pocket. I notched the curved edge so it lays flat and folded the edge under.
My pocket has some pocket studs at the corners that I need to sew close to, so I put a zipper foot on my machine and sewed all around the pocket fabric. Since you're attaching it to a loop of fabric, you will need to wrestle the fabric so you only sew through one layer of fabric.
Keep the seam ripper handy just in case, I definitely sewed through all the layers!
Grab your lining fabric! We need to cut it so that it will fit the leg, I measured by laying it over my leg fabric, folding it over (so its doubled) and adjusting it so that when folded over its about 1 inch bigger for seam allowance at the side seam. The depth of my fabric was pretty close to what I needed already so I adjust later but you will need something at least as deep as the leg fabric and it will be cut shorter to adjust later. Cut!
If you haven't ironed yet, iron now! I folded my lining fabric down about 1/2", this will help me sew a nice top edge along the drawstring.
Sew up the lining fabric with right sides facing along the side with the seam allowance you included.
If your leg fabric is noticeably tapered like mine is, you will want to slightly gather your top hem. I gathered the fabric by hand stitching and pulling the thread until it was roughly the same diameter (opening) as the drawstring opening. You can tell if it matches by measuring or holding the lining inside the drawstring opening.
Pin the gathered lining with pretty side facing the inside (ugly) side of the leg fabric. You want the crease of the lining fabric to sit just just below the drawstring casing. Sew just below the crease, making sure you don't catch the drawstring casing or drawstring.
If you flip the lining down so you can see the pretty side, it should look like an inside out bag!
Keep the lining flipped up (right sides facing). Sew along the bottom edge of the leg fabric.
If your lining is looking a lot longer than the other side, trim it now! You should only need to trim by about an inch just make sure to leave enough seam allowance.
Sew along the bottom edge of the lining fabric, leaving a 3" gap. Clip corners.
Turn your bag right side out, use a chop stick to point out your corners.
With the lining pulled out, sew along the bottom edge of the lining by topstitching or you can hand sew an invisible ladder stitch. Push the lining back in and your bag is all done!
This is a super practical and durable bag! I think I will use it as a mini project bag to organize my knitting or sewing. What will you use yours for?!
If you try this project, I'd love to see! Tag @Sunny_Salvage on Instagram or Facebook and follow me on Pinterest for more upcycling ideas!
Happy Upcycling!