Denim Cross-Body Shark Bag

Sometimes, all you need in life is a just-out-of-the-ordinary bag to have with you on perhaps some more ordinary days. My social media seem to be very aware of that need, showcasing a wide variety of cute bags (and non-bags that I have convinced myself will absolutely make an amazing bag). Amongst these: whale shark bags.

While I absolutely love whale shark bags, I wanted to make something a bit more BLAHAJ coded. Key design factors here: round(er), cute, blue, spacious. A friend, not afraid to take up some space.

And what better way to make a new friend than with preloved materials! This bag uses two pairs of jeans, with a color difference to make the design stand out more while keeping it simplistic.

Materials:

1. Two pairs of jeans you're not wearing anymore, preferably the same size
2. some difference in material is fine! The light blue jeans I'm using are thinner and less elastic, versus the thicker and more elastic darker jeans.
3. Thread*
4. A zipper

Tools:

1. Fabric scissors
2. Fabric chalk
3. Sewing machine*
4. including a sewing machine needle suitable for denim

*Make sure the thread you're using works well with your sewing machine. It's also possible to hand sew this project, though in that case I would suggest embroidery threads and an embroidery needle.

The idea behind this pattern is to optimize the usage of material from two pairs of jeans, and use as little material as possible outside of that fabric.

All the shark pieces are sketched in chalk on the jeans in the first image, overlayed digitally to show the pattern clearly. This is the main pattern, which can also be found in the file added to this step. The file can be used as a baseline pattern, which you can tweak to fit the jeans you're making it from - as long as the pieces are scaled up or down together, this should work. The file includes a line to check the size at which it is printed, as shown in the 4th image in this step.

For reference, the jeans I used are a W28/L30, in a slim-fitting model. This gave me a full torso sized bag. If the jeans you are using are baggier, take into account that using the full pant leg will give you a wider shark.

Aside from the main pattern pieces, this pattern also makes use of the waist bands of both pairs of jeans - see step 15 for the details on this.

All main pattern pieces are cut while the jeans are laying flat - meaning you're cutting two layers at the same time. As you can see in the previous step, I didn't align the two layers at the waist band, but rather tried to put the pant legs together as flatly as possible. The back side of the jeans has more fabric, and with that you can see the waist band sitting higher than the front side.

For the back fins, there's enough space to make two differently sized fins. I originally planned on three, but ended up liking the look of two fins. If you do want three, there's multiple areas of fabric still free for this!

The side fins and tail are the smaller "main" pieces. The tail uses two separate pieces, cut from the different jeans. This is a nice opportunity to see how easy the two fabrics pin together - just don't forget to keep the right sides against each other. If one of the pieces turned out a bit smaller than the other, keep it on top while pinning to make sure it aligns as well as possible. As the fins are cut on a seam, you can just fold it over to have the right sides against each other on the inside and pin everything in place.

Time to see if your sewing machine will agree (at least a bit) with this project! This is a pretty low amount of layers in comparison to some upcoming steps. If you notice your machine struggling, I would recommend checking the needle you're using, along with the thread tension your machine is set on.

It's a very rewarding step as well, as it shows off how nicely those two colours of denim work next to each other :)

The fins are sewn in between the two layers of the bottom of the bag. To get your fins on the right side, you want to sandwich these in between the "right sides" of the fabric. Just imagine your shark is crossing their fins! When pinning these layers together, start by securing the fins before moving around the edges. Be careful about where you're placing the fins, as they are pretty long and you want to prevent yourself from accidentally sewing a different part of the fin into your seam.

Sew the two layers together, keeping enough space free to turn the fabric right-side out again. Don't forget the fins also need to fit through! As this edge will later be sewn into another edge, there's no need to worry about closing the remaining gap.

With the bottom part of the shark finished, it's time to focus on the top part. Instead of pinning the two sides together like we did for the bottom part, we're sewing two halves - using the folded fabric as two layers. Pin them together wrong side out and sew them together, leaving space on the tail side to turn the fabric right side out.

Before joining these two halves, it's time to pin and sew the back fins. If you want your fins to be pointier after turning the fabric right side out again, you can use the back of a pen or pencil to get the last bits of fabric into the corner.

Determine where you want your fins to sit, and then try to not get the sides turned around as you flip the right sides of the fabric against each other to sew it, with the fins sandwiched in between. The two halves of the shark's back can then be sewn, following the pretty much straight line.

Time to let two halves make a whole! To pin the two parts of the bag together, start by aligning the corners at the tail and pinning this part in place. For this step, the right sides of the fabric are on the inside again.

Check to see where exactly your zipper is going to be - I started mine at the middle of the mouth and let it run until over the fin. Pin the zipper side first, ending your pins where the zipper starts so you know where not to sew yet.

If you're seeing fins (aside from the one not included in these seams), it may be good to check if everything is on the right side.

On the other side, keep working your way up to the mouth. This is where the extra fabric on the top side comes in - we're trying to make this bag spacious, after all. Lift the "extra" part and fold it back a bit, so you can keep pinning the sides together without the additional fabric getting in your way.

And then the sewing can begin! I previously mentioned your sewing machine - this is where my machine started struggling. You're sewing together double layers at the part where they have their own internal double layers from the previous seams you created here. Perhaps some kind words and a machine checkup intermezzo won't hurt?

Once you're good to go again, I'd recommend sewing this in two goes: starting from the tail corner all the way up to halfway a the mouth, and starting from the tail corner the other way up until (in my case) the fin. Turn the right side out again to see if it's starting to resemble a shark.

With the bulk of the body taking shape, you can also sew the remaining part of the middle together. Place the pieces (inside out) against each other. My pins did not agree with the amount of layers, so I only added one pin - as the fabric is already held together by the back seam as well. My sewing machine unfortunately also did not agree with the amount of layers, resulting in a bit more of a rustic look than the smooth curve I was going for. Well, it's all about character, right?

Disclaimer: I go out of my way to avoid sewing in zippers any chance I get.

For this project, however, it felt like I had no other option that would work as well.

The zipper should fit nicely in the space you left open in The Big Sew we did a few steps ago. Starting with the underside of the bag, sew the first half of the zipper in place. Align the second half, pin it, and sew it as well to turn our shark into a shark container (it's a process, trust me).

When picking a zipper from my evergrowing stack of zippers (since I never use zippers), I actually did not notice it was an open-ended zipper. With how bulky the area the zipper is sewn into got, this absolutely made it easier to properly align the two sides.

One big design element I wanted to include was the way the tail is attached: at a 90 degree angle, ready to swim - rather than flatly joined to the body. This step also fixes those last open pieces at the tail corner.

Pinch the tail corner to become as flat as possible (as pictured), add the tail over it, and sew it in place! This gives the tail section of the bag some more shape and space inside as well.

While that finishes our shark, it's not yet a bag - it's missing a shoulder strap.

Take off the waistbands of both pairs of jeans. You can do this very neatly using a seam ripper, or just cut right under where the waistband is sewn together. I did specifically keep the belt loops on there, as I think they make for a fun design element that can be used to clip things to.

Sew the waistbands together using a zigzag stitch, while they're flat next to each other to broader the strap. I'm using an offset between the two bands, so that the fabric with the button hole on it sticks out further than the fabric with the button. If you're finding yourself in need of a longer shoulder strap, you can increase this offset further.

Figure out where to exactly place the shoulder strap, and sew around the original button hole. Alternatively, you can also sew a button here so the strap can be buttoned on :)

Start with the side on the top of the bag. Here, the strap will be placed somewhere at the mouth, on the non-zipper side. To properly place the other side, put the bag on and see where it lands the nicest. For me, this ended up being just under the opposite fin, so just past the end of the zipper.

As mentioned in the introduction, I kept the design on the simplistic side. There's absolutely enough fabric left for addtional details though! Some eyes, maybe a row of teeth? Whatever makes your shark bag swim best.