Jeans recon: tool belt

Inspired by the t-shirt recons on Threadbanger, I looked into my bag of cast offs for a garment to recycle into something else. I found a pair of jeans and thought of what to do with them. Since the jeans still fit me, I cut the lower half off both pant legs so that I still use the top half as shorts.


I thought about a tool belt for when I'm not wearing an apron and I need a pocket for tools.


Cut halfway up both sides of one of the legs, starting from the unseamed area. Fold the front flap forward to make a pocket. Cut the excess fabric from the top and fold in. Cut the back half of the same leg. Sew the bottom (without the seam) end and the sides of the pocket.


I wanted the existing orange seam to show but I didn't have orange thread to complement it, so I kept most of my seams in red thread out of sight. Hiding those stitches took the longest even if I only did an even running stitch (four-ply for extra strength) most of the time.

Snip four evenly spaced half-inch holes below the seamed edge of the leg. These is where the belt will come through. For the belt, cut off the seams all around the other pant leg and sew them together into one long piece. Save the excess fabric for future projects.



Slip your belt through the holes...


And here's the finished product. I think it's useful for anyone working with little tools, from hairdressers to dressmakers, waiters to makeup artists.