Whenever my cargo pants, those that have many pockets, can't be worn as pants anymore and need to move on to their next life they become bags.
The fabric is sturdy and what I like the best is that there are many pockets. This time I decided that my much loved tie dyed pants had to move on, so what better way than to create a multi pocketed tote bag.
The tie dyed pants have been with me for a number of years and have been worn in an out. A number of years back I added zippered pockets to the sides.
In my pile of tie dyed treasures that I came back with from the USA on one of my trips. Carol Kinney had added a pair of tie dyed pants. Beautiful, in all my colors.
When I teach I carry my office around with me so I need lots of pockets on my pants.
I decided to add 2 side welt pockets with zippered openings. I had some remnants left over from a purple cotton sheet which were perfect for this.
Find a detailed tutorial of how to create pockets on my site here
Most of the pocket is not visilbe barring for when the zippers are opened and then one sees a glimpse of the pocket so the colors still have to match the pants.
I doubled the fabric layers and stitched twice around the pockets and added a third stitching line at the bottom. From experience, the weight of keys, purse and pelephone on one side and notebook and pencils on the other side cause wear and tear.
I found 2 deep navy blue zippers in my upcycled stash which were perfect for the pockets.
Stitched all around the zippered opening in a complementary thread color and the pockets are done.
The waistband was too low for my liking. So I found a polycotton stretch fabric in my stash, again in a complementary color.
Created a new high waistband and added 2 buttons and button holes.
Perfect. I have many solid colored t shirt tops in shades matching the pants. Turquoise, burgundy, fuschia and purple. I am going to get a lot of wear out of them.
I have worn these pants many times and they are ready for a new life. So I reconstructed them into a multi pocketed tote bag.I also wrote a tutorial for it.
A selection of bag tutorials can be found here on Etsy
and here on the site