Turning Shorts into Bag

Someone tell me what I was thinking when I bought this pair of shorts?
This pair of shorts, was so short that I couldn't even wear it to the beach with my bikini bottom under it. I must have thought that I was still 16 when I made the purchase. You know, just like that time I bought this jacket, thinking that I was a 6 feet tall model?

Well, I was just about to donate this pair to charity, when someone at Wardrobe Refashion posted a project that transformed a skirt into a bag.

Well... what a wonderful idea! So, this is not an original idea, but I took a lot of photos while doing this, so I thought I'd share my journey with you.


Using my seam ripper, I ripped out the seams of the short's bottom.

Flattened the bottom and sewed to create a flat piece:

I sewed along the bottom, and cut off excess fabric. Made lining of the same size:

I attach a pockets to the lining:
Next, I attached the zipper (I wasn't very smart about this, and was a tad sloppy):
Used a belt that is too small for me. I cut it in half and sewed (by hand) the cut ends onto the bag.
Attached the lining to the bag (this too took a lot of fiddling.):
I decided to use this really cool belt that I found last year. I picked up the belt even though it is too small for me.The inside of the bag:
And the result:
This bag is in use right now. The shorts were tiny to begin with, so the handbag is quite small, but I'm used to smallish handbags. I think that I could have been smarter about the zipper, but I'm the only one who notices how sloppily it was slapped on. I'm my own worst critic.