... and a Denim Wine Bottle Bag

One of my favourite things is to go to my friend Eleanor's house, armed with a bottle of wine (or two) for a cheap alternative to a night out. And Eleanor LOVES her wine! So for her birthday I decided to make her a present for when she is carting her bottles around to whoever is hosting the next wine night - a travel friendly bag, upcycled from a pair of jeans!

We love to upcycle clothes. Even better when you don't have to take them apart too much! (see also Denim Storage Basket). The secret here is to use the right size jeans - these were Mally's age 3 ones that he has grown out of. The leg is a perfect size for a wine bottle and therefore the amount of sewing is minimal!!

I measured the length of the bottle and then added extra for turning over the "hems" before cutting.
These jeans have a little tab on the side where you can button up the turn ups - I decided to take advantage of this feature and used it to hide my botched up stitching of the base circle (a scrap piece of the same jeans).
Attaching the circle is tricky but placing over a bottle helps - or you could borrow a child's arm!!

I hand stitched the circle onto the base about 5cm up from the bottom. I then turned up the hems and buttoned into place.

I turned the tops part over to match the bottom and sewed a couple of invisible stitches into it (but not all the way around - I wanted it to look loosely turned over)

For the strap, I used half of the waist band! I attached this to the outside of the top, and sewed over the existing top stitching.

Then just for fun, I adapted one of the back pockets and turned it into an embellishment. (I forgot to use a hoop and my free motion embroidery went a bit mental... They're meant to be leaves... On reflection, I'm not sure that this was the right move but I felt committed to it! Update- Just realised I forgot to drop my feed thingys. Rookie mistake!)

All finished, but incredibly hard to photo without having someone to model. Unfortunately, Mally just didn't get my directions!

The best part is, I only used half a pair of jeans - I therefore have enough leftover to make one for myself too! Perfect for transporting my bottle, and then it can be folded up and put into my handbag!!

We are linking up to these parties!
2nd October 2013: Update - this post was featured here at Madcap Frenzy