Little girls' skirts make great purses

I was trolling my favorite Thrift Store and saw this cute skirt.  Immediately, I could see it's potential as a cute purse.  For a couple of bucks, I walked out with it, planning the whole way home.  It took a couple of hours to whip up, but was worth it!

Finding coordinating fabric for the lining was the hard part.  I finally found a match in a skirt that my daughter had asked me to shorten.  Hoping she'd forgive me for scavening it, I cut the top of her skirt off.  Now it was shortened!  (I have to get that elastic in for her and give it back!)  I cut off the 1 inch elastic waistband in the skirt and set it aside for the strap.  I also had to find more denim for a matching strap, which I conveniently found in my 9 year old sons' drawers.  I'm glad he grew 2 inches this school year!
Being denim, I didn't need to reinforce the outside of the purse, but the lining needed reinforcement.  Being a rayon skirt, it was thin and flimsy.  I ironed a heavy pellon onto the wrong side of the top of my daughter's skirt.  Ironically, there was a gather in her skirt that corresponded nicely with the red plaid ruffle in the purse outside.  Nonetheless, I pressed the gathers flat into the pellon.  Using the outside as a pattern, I cut out the lining to match.
I stitched the bottom of the girls' skirt together, matching the plaid design.  Then I box pleated the ends by stitching across that seam at the corner.  Noting the excess fabric in the center due to the cute plaid gathers, I made two more box pleats evenly spaced across the bottom of the skirt.
Turning my attention to the lining, I used a small rectangle of fabric and some cotton to make a panel that I stitched to one side to be a pocket.  I sewed the two lining pieces together, matching right sides together.  I then made a box pleat on each end as I had done with the outside.  The lining didn't seem to need the center box pleats, so I didn't bother. 
I found a zipper that would match and stitched it about an inch to an inch and a half from the top edge of the lining.  I just stitched it onto the right side, zipper open.  I pinned it first to be sure it was well placed.  The zipper was too long, so after I stitched it into the lining, I cut off the excess and stitched a small rectangular piece of fabric over the end to finish it.  I like that well enough that I repeated that on the open side of the zipper end. 
I then focused on the strap.  Taking my son's jeans, I cut a 3 inch swath of fabric up the back of one of his pant legs.  I stitched it to one side of the waistband, using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, all the way down the length of the waistband.  Turning that seam right side out, I folded the denim under to form a hem and topstitched it along the other side of the strap.  The gathers in the elastic waistband formed a nice shirred surface and added strength to the strap. 
Cutting the length to my desired size, I pinned it to the outside of the side edges of the purse.  I ironed a 1/2 inch hem into the top of the lining.  I then tucked the lining inside the purse, pinned the lining in place and top stitched it 1/4 inch below the top outside.