Recycle Jeans into a Clothes Pin Bag!

After making a few aprons using old jeans, I started thinking of other ways to recycle jeans into useful household tools. Recently a friend of mine asked if I could make a hanging bag for her clothes pins since she likes to hang her clothes out on the line in the nice weather. So I let some ideas stew in my brain for a few days and then I got to work.

Here's a little photo tutorial on how I made a clothes pin bag using an old pair of jeans, a small plastic hanger and some leftover bias binding.


This is the second leg of the jeans that I cut up to make the ladybug apron. I took a small plastic hanger from my children's closet and placed it at the point on the leg where the edges just met the edges of the pant leg. Then I used my white fabric marking pencil to trace the slanted lines above the hanger.


I cut about 5/8 inch above the lines I had traced, to allow for the seam.


I refolded the pant leg so that the front was folded in half and drew half of a teardrop-ish shape on the fold starting about 2 inches down from the top.


Then I cut straight down the fold from the top to the beginning of the teardrop-ish shape, and then cut around the shape to make the opening which will be on the front of the bag.


Of course you can't really see the cut-out in this picture because the denim is all the same color on the inside and the outside, but you can see a little bit of the white line left behind.


I then bound the opening edge with a piece of extra wide bias binding from my scrap collection. I thought the yellow was a nice contrast to the black denim. Homemade bias binding of any width would also work well, or any width of ready made...whatever you have on hand!


Just to add some detail, I picked out one of the hardly-ever-used fancy stitches on my sewing machine, and stitched around the binding.


Then I turned the whole thing inside out and pinned the top edge. I stitched it using about a 5/8 inch seam allowance, then I stitched it again about 1/8 inch inside the seam allowance for extra strength.


Then I decided how long I wanted the bag to be, and cut off the extra from the bottom. I stitched up the newly cut bottom edge, and stitched it again for strength.

After turning the bag right side out again, I stitched the seam allowance at the opening to the back of the bag for added strength where the hanger will be coming out of the bag.


This is that same stitching at the opening shown from the back side of the bag.



I put the hanger into the bag and there it is!


But wait! Look what I found in my closet! A cute little appliqué to iron onto something. And I think this is the perfect something, don't you?


So there's my recycled jeans/leftover bias binding/extra plastic hanger clothes pin bag, dressed up with a cute little bumble bee appliqué. It only took about 1 1/2 hours and didn't cost me a dime. Sure beats the ugly things you pay money for in the home center stores or bed and bath stores! And just think of the cute bags you could make with bias binding leftover from other projects you've done. The possibilities are endless. Just use your imagination, and save those plastic hangers!

Happy Stitching!

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