{Project Jean Purse}

Grace has been interested in sewing for a while now. We've made a small pillow for her room and she's watched me hem a few pair of pants, but that's about as far as our sewing lessons have went. She's been wanting to sew on her own and I've been a little nervous to let her do it herself, but she is 10 now and knows so much more than she did when she was 9. Riiiight. Anyway, I asked friends what a good project would be and a few suggested a jean purse out of an old pair of jeans. I looked it up on Pinterest and found this great blog for a jean purse tutorial. <=== Click that link to go to it! We made a very minor adjustment on the strap to make it lay a little more flat, and Grace was very excited about how it turned out. I think if we do another one, I will make my own tutorial, just for fun!

We used a pair of Justice jeans (Grace's favorite brand of clothes right now). I found these jeans at a yard sale this summer for an awesome $6. They looked like they had only been worn a couple of times and since they didn't fit Grace, they were going to go into the yard sale tub. So glad they were still hanging in the closet! Grace did most of the cutting with the exception of cutting over the thick parts. I did let her do most of the sewing and she loved it! [On a side note, I have such a hard time getting started sometimes. It takes me forever to get the bobbin thread situated right and there's always a catastrophe to get the sewing actually started. Once I get it right, I can sail along...until I run out of bobbin thread! Also, my thread wants to bulk up on the back side of whatever I'm sewing. Any thoughts on this? I'm going to blame my machine (and not the fact that I am self taught on what I do know how to do) for the majority of my problems! haha] Here are a few pics of the work in progress:




And some pics of the final product! I saved the ribbon from a pair of clearance pajamas I got at Justice last year and it has finally served it's purpose as the perfect "belt" for this jean purse. I knew I kept it for a good reason! :)


Hope your first week of 2012 has been great! 1 down 51 to go! How's your 2012 bucket list coming along?!