Make an awesome DIY glasses case from your old jeans

Upcycled jeans DIY glasses case with killer pocket feature

The sun is finally shining and my shades have come out. I’m fed up of damaging my sunglasses when I’m not wearing them. They normally get lost to the depths of my handbag or crushed in my pockets. To stop this happening again I designed a really handy DIY glasses case made from upcycled jeans.
 
Mind you, this is no ordinary DIY glasses case. As well as looking great it sports a killer pocket feature, for items such as money and cards. This project is easy to make and uses the often neglected part of upcycled jeans, the front pocket.
 
When nipping out to the park or the local cafe, I just take my sunglasses in the case instead of lugging my whole handbag out with me. This DIY glasses case would also make a great handmade gift for either a man or woman. I do find Men really like them though especially for the killer pocket feature as they don’t tend to carry around handbags.
 

 


 


 

 
 
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What you will need to make denim DIY glasses case.

• Old jeans / denim shorts. Denim is a cool fabric to work with. In the past I have used my old jeans to upholster chairs and footstools, make patchwork cushions and quilts. The majority of my upcycled jeans projects use the legs and the back pockets, but for a change this project utilises the front pocket area.
• lining Fabric – You will need no more than a quarter yard. You can choose the fabric to suit the reciepient.
• Very thin wadding/batting
• Cotton Thread
• Sewing Machine with heavy duty denim needle
• Scissors or rotary cutter, pins, pen, round cup/bowl.

How to make upcycled denim DIY glasses case

1. First cut out a 22cm square each of lining fabric, wadding and jeans pocket. I made a 22cm square cardboard template and use this to cut the fabrics with a rotary cutter. When placing the template over the jeans make sure you get all of the front pocket, whilst moving the pocket lining out the way so that it doesn’t get cut as well.
    
   

    

2. Next round off the bottom corners of all the pieces of fabric. To do this fold your fabric pieces in half, length ways. Place a bowl/cup over the bottom right corner and draw round it. Cut the fabric along your mark. Unfold the fabric pieces, you will now have 2 rounded corners on the bottom of each fabric piece.
    
   

 

3. Put the jeans pocket and lining fabric right sides together. Place this on top of the wadding and pin together. Leaving an edge of approximately 5mm, sew round the bottom curved edge and 2 sides of the fabric with a sewing machine. The top should be left open.
    
   
    
4. Trim excess fabric from the corners and turn the fabric sandwich right side out. You should have a rounded square of fabric. One side denim and the other patterned with a wadded filling. Now carefully turn over a 5mm edge of the lining fabric pin and sew to close the top.
    
   
    
   
    
   
    
5. Finally fold the denim pocket pad in half lengthways, with the fabric lining on the inside. Pin and sew around the edge. Be careful as you will now be sewing through many layers of fabric.
    
   This can be tricky, make sure you have a heavy duty jeans needle in your sewing machine. You can even sew by hand if you want to.
    
   The top waistband of the denim jeans can be particularly tricky. When this is the case, I leave this top 1 inch open.
    
   This doesn’t affect the usefulness of the sunglasses case, in fact, I think it makes it more attractive as you can see more of the pretty colourful lining.
    
   
    

I made four of these upcycled jeans cases at the same time so I had some spare for gifts. If making the sunglasses case as a gift, you can make it even more personal by using the recipient’s old jeans. I love mine and use it all the time, I find the pocket bit so handy.
 

 

 
 
Here are some of my other denim upcycles you might want to look at.
Ikea Hack – Denim Chair Upcycle
Tutorial for a Great Denim Pocket Organiser
DIY Iphone Denim Pocket Pillow
Easy No Sew Denim Suitcase
Denim handmade dog toys