A Water Bottle Tote

This little beauty is made from the bottoms of my daughters old, and full of knee holes jeans. She now has a nice pair of play shorts AND a bottle tote for those long summer bike rides that will fill her days in the weeks to come.

This is a very kid friendly sewing project, and start to finish only takes about 20-30 minutes. Apologies in advance as to the quality of these photos for they were taken with my phone while I sewed in bed. I only have two excuses for this.
a) I was lazy   and    b) I was pretty lazy


First, you need the bottom of those jeans, that are now a cool pair of shorts. The pants I used were a size 8, super skinny. They had a touch of spandex.

Next, roll up the cut end twice to make a cuff, or at least enough to roll over the hole if there was one in the knee like mine. Cut a strip of strong ribbon about 34 inches long (this length fit my 11year old, skinny daughter perfectly, but you may need more or less depending on who will be using it). Line up one end of the ribbon to the top edge of your rolled cuff. Make sure it is as dead center as you can make it.

Next, sew it into place using a basic stitch, being careful to sew just the cuff and ribbon together and not to the pant leg itself. Neatness doesn't matter here as the stitches will not be seen.

 Repeat for both sides, being sure the ribbons line up in the middle on each side.

At some point you may acquire company. You will persevere none the less.

 Next you will roll the cuff up once more. Now that sewing job you did is on the inside of the cuff.

Make a finishing stitch to this side, being sure to sew the cuff to the pant leg. I chose some nice wide x's. Repeat on the other side.

Now your top is done. It's time to finish with the bottom.

Line up a water bottle to your tote and roll up the bottom of the leg so that it becomes the same length as the bottle. At least three rolls up is suggested. If your pant leg is too long, cut off some of the bottom before rolling it up so that your cuff won't be too bulky.

 Next, you will unroll the cuff once. This is so you can follow the same method that you used for the top and fold up the cuff once you have stitched the ribbon on.

There may be a better method for this, but seeing as I sort of came up with this project on the fly and didn't think it out very much, you will have to live with my processes.
I took one end of the ribbon and tucked it inside the seam.

Next, I opened up the bottom of the leg all the way and pulled the ribbon along the opening to measure the circumference (i say measure, but i did nothing of the sort).

Then tuck the last end inside the seam and mark this final length on the ribbon. Make your cut. I had about a 9 inch strip of ribbon once I was done. If your legs are bigger round, you will most assuredly come up with a different length for this bottom piece.

Complete the bottom using the exact process as you did with the top cuff.

Folding up here. Finished with the same wide x stitch as used before.

 Here he is, all finished, resting happy on the bed.

And, with water bottle tucked inside.