Flight Suit Purses!

So while staying at Matt & Jai's house, Matt, who is currently an instructor pilot with the USAF, had a flight suit "emergency" and ripped the bottom of his zipper on his flightsuit. We saved the day and brought him another flightsuit (so he could finally get up from behind his desk!) and I asked Jai if I could use the old flighsuit for some projects! So after a good washing, I had an excellent source of project inspiration.

I knew I wanted to make a purse out of it, but there are so many pockets and so much fabric, I didn't know where to start. I did some searching online, and found a few websites (some on Etsy, some not) that had flight suit bags on them. The thing I couldn't believe was how EXPENSIVE they were selling them for. One site had them for over $100 plus you had to provide the flight suit or to pay an extra $30 for one. The other ones on Etsy were still over $50 and honestly, I didn't like the look of them at all.

So I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I have enough friends in the Air Force that I think would like a bag that I could make a few extra spending bucks on them. I also hope to start taking the old, ripped, and worn out suits from Dereck and his squadmates so I have a nice stock of them.

As my luck turned out (since there isn't a fabric store here in Del Rio), I had some fabric in my stock that was just sitting around waiting for a project... it also happened to match perfectly. I ended up making two bags for Jai out of her husband's suit and still have two small leg pockets still available to make something out of. So here are some pictures of the finished projects!

Here is a picture of the larger bag. Its made from the chest part of the flight suit, with the original zipper working to open and close the bag. I left the areas for patches so Jai can put her 'family' patches on it when Matt finally gets her some!

Side 1:

Side 2:

Lining fabric:

I used the arm pocket which holds pens as well as has a small zippered section on the inside of the bag:

This is the smaller purse I made out of the thigh pockets. There is a pocket on each side and I used the velcro found on the arm cuffs as the closure. I also used interfacing for the first time to give the bag the shape, and I loved the finished product! I'm no longer afraid of interfacing!
Side 1: horizontal pocket

Side 2: vertical pocket

Inside:

I know I'll have a flight suit available for me to make purses for myself when Dereck gets back from training, since he told me he ripped his out in the woods! Plus when he gets new ones issued in Yokota I'm stealing his old ones for sure. With so many pockets and fabric to play with there is almost an infinite amount of possibilities! If you're interested in one, email me! Hopefully once I get set up on Etsy I can really start going with this :-) I also think I could make a great diaper bag, and with a more neutral lining fabric, I don't think a pilot dad would be afraid to tote that around!