Kenny decided that everyone was better off when he felt pretty.

Thursday would normally be an outfit post, but since I’ve managed not to leave the house all week, I haven’t actually worn any outfits! So instead, another pretty easy project.

I have a torn pair of leather pants, and a pair of suede pants that never fit right, so I’ve been using them as material for alterations and projects. I used part of a suede leg for my purse, but really, zip top pouch clutches are incredibly easy to fashion. It’s just a doubled shape with a zipper on top.

I used metal eyelets for the holes to tie my brass knuckle to, but sewing them directly to the fabric is cool too. I wanted to be able to carry the clutch in a couple different ways, so I placed my knuckle about 1/3 of the way from the top.

This way I can hold the purse from the top, with my thumb over the zipper, turn it upside down and have my fingers curled under the zipper, or fold it in half or at the knuckle if it isn’t very full.

Slightly time consuming, but so long as you can use a crayon, this one is incredibly easy.

You’ll need:

• A pair of jeans you like but are willing to change
• Fabric crayons (I used Crayola, which was probably a mistake.)
• An iron (maybe)
• Paper
• Strong fingers
• A hard surface to draw on
• Good background music or TV (I used Frasier and Golden Girls reruns)

You can draw on paper and then transfer to the fabric via ironing, but the colours will be most vibrant if you draw directly on the fabric itself. So, put your jeans on a hard surface and have at it.

I used a variety of colours and just alternated between horizontal and vertical striping.

When you’re done drawing, you’ll have to set the colour. With my Crayolas, this means placing a piece of paper over the pattern and ironing. Each fabric crayon brand could have different requirements, so follow your directions. This is where I went wrong. My Crayola instructions state that the higher the polyester content of the fabric, the more colourfast the crayons will be. 78% cotton, and 20% polyester was just not a high enough poly count. When I put the iron on the colour, the pattern melted into the cotton! When I first lifted the iron I was baffled – what was this iron shaped dark spot? I recoloured the missing pattern and put the iron away. I’m going to try waxing over the pattern with Otter Wax, hopefully that will protect the print. Also, I’ll be sure the jeans undergo minimal washing.

So, ta da – patterned jeans!

When I started the pattern, I got halfway up the first leg front and considered stopping since it looked pretty cool just like that. But I figured it was my first project I may as well do the full front. I opted against doing the full back, and instead just went all the way around the ankle.

There must be a fabric crayon for cotton – I’ll find it for the next one.