How to Upcycle Old Jeans Into a Sturdy Tote Bag

You have a stack of jeans with blown-out knees and stretched waistbands, and they are too good to bin but too worn to wear. If you upcycle old jeans into a tote bag, two pairs give you a bag that will carry 10 kg of groceries for years, and the seams of the original jeans do half the structural work for you.

I have made a few dozen of these for market stalls and for my own shop runs. The version below is the one that survived the most abuse. It takes about three hours the first time, and closer to ninety minutes once you have done one.

What you need to upcycle old jeans into a tote

• Two pairs of adult jeans, ideally rigid cotton denim rather than stretch blends
• A sewing machine with a size 100/16 or 110/18 denim needle
• Heavy polyester thread, often sold as jeans or upholstery thread
• About 50 cm of cotton fabric for a lining, optional but worth it
• Fabric scissors, a rotary cutter if you have one, clips instead of pins
• A ruler, chalk and a hammer for flattening thick seams

Check the fibre label first. Jeans with more than about 2 percent elastane stretch out of shape under load, and a tote made from them sags after a few heavy trips. Keep stretch pairs for patchwork or the scrap bin. Our guide to which fabric scraps are worth saving covers what to do with the leftovers.

Cutting the panels

Wash and dry the jeans so any remaining shrinkage happens before you cut. Then lay out each pair and plan your pieces around the wear.

1. Body panels. Cut the legs open along the inside seam, keeping the flat-felled outside seam intact. From the widest part of the thighs, cut four rectangles about 22 cm wide by 40 cm tall.
2. Base. Cut one rectangle 12 cm by 42 cm from the back of a leg, where the denim is usually least worn.
3. Straps. Cut the waistbands off both pairs just below the stitching line. Each waistband becomes one strap, around 75 to 90 cm long depending on the original size.
4. Pocket. Cut one back pocket off with a 1 cm margin of jeans fabric all around it. This becomes the outside pocket.

Keep the flat-felled seam running vertically down the middle of two of the body panels. It adds stiffness exactly where a tote tends to fold.

Sewing the bag body

Set the stitch length to 3 to 3.5 mm. Short stitches on thick denim perforate the fabric and weaken it.

1. Join two body panels side by side with a 1 cm seam allowance to make the front, and the other two to make the back. Press the seams open, then topstitch 5 mm either side of the seam.
2. Sew the cut-off back pocket onto the front panel, roughly 8 cm below the top edge, stitching over the original pocket stitching so it looks factory made.
3. Sew the base strip to the bottom of the front panel, then to the bottom of the back panel, so you have one long piece.
4. Fold right sides together and sew both side seams, including the short ends of the base strip.
5. Box the corners: pinch each bottom corner flat so the side seam lines up with the base seam, mark a line 6 cm across, and sew it twice.

Where you cross the old flat-felled seams, you will be sewing through six or eight layers. Hit those spots a few times with a hammer on a hard surface to flatten them, then sew slowly and turn the handwheel by hand for the thickest stitches.

Why you should skip the waistband button

A lot of tutorials tell you to keep the jeans button and buttonhole as a closure because it looks charming. In my experience, it is the first thing to fail. The buttonhole was designed to take strain sideways around a waist, not the up-and-down pull of a bag being opened forty times a week. Within a month the hole stretches and the button pulls out of the fabric.

Cut the button off and save it for decoration if you like the look. For a closure, sew a 2 cm wide strip of denim with a magnetic snap, or leave the bag open. Most shopping totes are opened and closed so often that a closure is more nuisance than help.

Straps and lining

Attaching the straps

Waistbands are already interfaced and topstitched, so they make excellent straps. Trim off the belt loops and the button end. Pin each strap 7 cm in from the side seams, with 4 cm of strap overlapping the inside of the bag top.

Sew each strap end with a box and an X: a rectangle of stitching with a diagonal cross inside it. This spreads the load across the whole overlap instead of a single line, and it is the difference between a bag that carries wine bottles and one that tears at the handle.

Adding a lining

Cut the lining to the same pattern as the outer bag and sew it the same way, but leave a 12 cm gap in one side seam. Place the outer bag inside the lining, right sides together, and sew around the top edge. Turn the whole thing out through the gap, stitch the gap closed, then push the lining into the bag and topstitch 1 cm below the top edge.

Costs and what to expect

If you already own the machine, the materials cost very little. A spool of heavy thread is around $5 and covers several bags, a denim needle pack is about $6, and a magnetic snap is under $2. Thrifted jeans run $3 to $8 a pair if you do not have your own.

At craft markets, I have sold these for $35 to $55, depending on the lining fabric and how good the pocket detail looks. Price your time honestly; three hours of work is not a $15 bag. If you plan to sell them, a clear description of how the bag was made helps more than any photo filter.

Denim totes also pair well with other salvage work. If you like the idea of giving something worn a second life with a job to do, the project on turning a broken chair into something worth keeping uses the same mindset with wood.

Frequently asked questions

How many pairs of jeans do you need for a tote bag?

Two adult pairs are enough for a medium tote with denim straps. One large pair can work if you use fabric webbing for the straps instead of waistbands. Kids' jeans usually need three or four pairs.

Can a regular sewing machine sew through old jeans?

Most home machines can handle it with a denim needle, heavy thread and a longer stitch. Flatten thick seams with a hammer first and turn the handwheel by hand over the bulkiest spots. If the machine stalls, do not force it.

How do you keep a denim tote from sagging?

Use rigid denim with little or no elastane, keep a flat-felled seam running vertically in the panels, and box the corners. A piece of stiff interfacing or a removable plastic board in the base also helps it stand up.