craftgrrl | Got some old pants and not enough bags?

I'm not really a crafty person (I have the artistic talent of a stick), but I thought I'd mention a simple bag that I made years ago.

I had a pair of army pants, and I converted them into shorts by just cutting the legs off from the knee down. With the knee-down segments of material, I turned them inside out, sewed along the roughly cut edge (I recommend a sewing machine, although I did it by hand and it's lasted since '97), and then flip it normal way out again. Instant bag that matches your pants, and uses up those bits that would have otherwise stayed in my scraps box :)

I also cut one of the button hole sewn bits (can't think of how to word it, but they're the button down belt loops) and sewed that on the front of the bag, cut a hole in the back and sewed one of the buttons from my pants onto there. Because I didn't have any suitable strap material, I took the drawstring from a pair of old shorts and used that :)

I've recently bought some strong belts for cheap in bright colours, and I'm going to use them as straps for future bags.

(cross-posted to