Fast Making #4 - Dog Carrier Jean Bag

In an attempt to make more directly dog-related things, I thought to finally use the ripped jeans I’d been hoarding, waiting for a project to make with it. They were very dark and I wanted to print onto the fabric, so I decided to bleach them… except now other people use my bathroom so I couldn’t flatten them out in the tub. Since they were scrunched up in a bucket, they came out like this:

But I decided I kinda liked it.

As for the pattern for the bag itself, I didn’t want to buy a pattern from someone else because 1. a bag is too simple of a shape to need to copy somebody else 2. no need to spend more money while living in London 3. I need to make things independently so they’re my own.

I didn’t have big paper at this point, so I used the leftover cardboard from last project to cut out shapes for each side of the bag, one with a curve so a dog’s head could peak through.

As for the straps, I simply measured the length on a bag I like and drew it out on the fabric directly, which was a mistake that’ll come up later…

As I cut the pattern out, I also cut out a pocket, and noticed that I could make a nice decal using the unbleached fabric against the bleached fabric, like so.

I hand sewed each side to one another. Later I got access to the sewing machine and reinforced the insides and straps. I would have made nicer stitches for the dog decal, but doing so would be difficult without sewing the pocket shut.

For a dog carrying bag, these straps aren’t very practical. All the weight is distributed into your hands rather than your shoulder, which is the length I wanted, but there wasn’t enough fabric to work with due to the way I cut it. It’s still functional as a regular bag or for a very small dog like a chihuahua, once I put in a liner.