Sunshine Cross Body Bag in Denim Jeans, a Tie & Man's Shirt

A friend of mine asked me to make her a couple of the Sunshine Cross Body bags for her and her sister. She was giving her sister one for her birthday.  I was given some blue jeans, ties and a striped shirt in which to create these purses for them. Now the reason these bags in particular are special to both of them is that I made them out of their late father's blue jeans, shirt and tie. So instead of a memory quilt, they are a memory purse. I hope these purses give them both a lot of joyful memories of their father.

One of the ties had a large buffalo at the bottom and then above it was a couple of smaller buffalo and above that were even smaller buffalo still. She wanted the buffalo to be used in the purses. The larger one was easier to use. The other one I had to do differently because it was smaller. They needed a pop of red to look better, so I added the rickrack around the smaller one. On the larger one I could sew the sides going into the seam. I really think they came out looking great.

I thought the denim needed a bit of bling, so I added rivets to the sides on both the front and back of these bags.

The back of the bags I added slip pockets that close with a Kam snap and I used the red tie I was also given to bind the top of the pockets and also used this red tie for the zipper tab on top of the bag.

The striped shirt was used for the lining. I added a slip pocket, which I cut out of the pocket that was already on the shirt. I had to make this pocket a bit taller, because the existing shirt pocket was taller. So now there is a pocket on top of a pocket. I divided it for a pen pocket too.

I also added zippered pockets inside on both bags.

I made the straps using both the dark and lighter denim jeans.

And now for the photo location shoot around my yard: 

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