Upcycling Toddler Shorts Into A Toddler Purse

We got these shorts in one of our ebay “lots” of clothing – size 24 months. Most of the clothes were for the fall/winter season, because that’s when she turns 2, but for whatever reason these shorts came along for the ride. Though it’s very tempting, I have no desire to dress my child in booty shorts next winter! Sooo somewhere along the way I decided they needed to be made into a purse. And that’s what I did 🙂

I started by flipping the shorts inside out and measuring the same distance down all four seams from the top {this was literally the only measuring I did for this project!}. I then roughly connected my marks with a sharpie and cut off the leg holes.

After removing the leg holes, I searched my scrap fabric selections until I came across a plain, light pink material I thought would be just big enough for the bottom. I held the “skirt” above it to make sure it would work, and sure enough it just barely fit! I wasn’t sure how to make a symmetrical oval, so my solution was {after ironing} to fold the fabric in half twice so that I could round all four of my “corners” at the same time. I pinned it in place to be sure the folds didn’t slip.

 It turned out better than I expected! After re-ironing, I pinned the oval to the wrong-side-out “skirt” and sewed it close.

I used the edge of the foot as my guide so that rounding the corners wouldn’t get too confusing for me. I also did a backstitch {stitching in reverse over a small area} when I began & ended to keep everything in place. Then I flipped it right side out – and was again pleasantly surprised! {I made this up as I went guys!}

Then using a long purple scrap, I made the strap. I didn’t measure, I just went with the size of the scrap :). I ironed it to smooth the wrinkles, then folded in half lengthwise and pressed it again. Next, I sewed the long side and one of the ends close using the same seam allowance {aka the foot pedal as my guide}. The next step was to turnthe strap right side out through the little end not sewn shut & again repress. Time consuming, but worth it! I then added some pinkribbon by doing a simple stitch right down the middle of the strap and ribbon.

Here’s where it gets ugly… literally ugly… it wasn’t that hard to do. I sewed the ends of the ribbon to the inside of the purse with a regular needle & thread. I did a loop stitch around the bottom, then carefully stitched up the strap, attaching it to the inside of the waistband. I ended by repeating the loop stitches and knotting the thread.

 And here we have the finished product!!