How to Pick Strap Fabric for Handmade Purses

Video Transcript

"Hi. I?m Melina Piroso and welcome to Expert Village. Today I?m going to show you how to make this cute little bag out of regular, everyday fabrics. For this next step, we're going to talk about the fabric that we're going to use for our strap. So, we already have the fabric for the bag and the lining cut out and ready to go. So, the next thing you need is fabric to make a strap. If you happen to have a pretty rope or some crafty string that's thick and strong, you can use that. But, if you don't, you can make a strap out of just about anything. Here we have a pair of jeans that I used to make bell-bottoms. So, I have this extra fabric left over. Denim fabric is perfect for straps because it's really sturdy. If you have stretch jeans it might have a little give, but usually it's going to be perfect. The first thing that we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and iron this. Go ahead and iron it nice and flat. And, if the person who owned, if you're using denim like I am and the person who owned it, this being my mom; a little out-dated. She likes to iron in this crease right here which is incredibly hard to get rid of, but you can give it a shot. It probably won't go away, but it's okay because we're going to fold this whole thing up and turn it into a strap."