Would look great with a baguette and some curly lettuce sticking out.

One of my first sewing projects: the denim shopper bag, made from a pair of old jeans, deemed by my husband to be past their fashion sell-by date. The fabric was in good condition, though, and as the trousers were from a time when cargo-pants were still in recent memory, there was also a lot of it. I used it down to the last scrap, more or less.

It took ages to make, a combination of my inexperience, and inexplicable pleasure in unpicking seams (rather than just cut the seams away and be done with it). The bag is a success, though: shopping, picnics (once, anyway), those days when you need to carry water, an umbrella, sunglasses and a jacket; it takes bottles to the bottle bank, and it will even fit one of those frozen pizzas that I’m not sure if I disguise because frozen pizzas are an abomination, or because I buy the organic ones.

Inside pocket

Zipper in outside pocket, the waistband closure, and the key holder. Ready for black tie event.

It has eminently practical details. One of the outside pockets (the original back pocket) has an internal zipper, and there’s an inside pocket with a zipper, too, meaning that I don’t have to worry about phone or wallet falling out. The ends of the waist band have become a way to close it, and there’s a ring to hook my keys onto – though that detail is actually not so great, as it means the keys make this annoying dangly-chiming noise.

It’s one of those bags you like so much that you become convince it’s way more versatile than it really is.