denim hunting bag

[leviathan]

    Just looking at some pics from Southern Appalachia circa probably circa 1870-1920. Most of the men in these pics were wearing denim overalls and pants. Have any of you Gents ever heard of hunting pouches made out of denim from the Appalachians? Just wondering if it would be P.C. to have one made.I know they were a frugal people and made use of what they had.  Thanks for any help.

[Cades Cove Fiddler]

  .... Have seen a couple original old bags made from canvas, and striped ticking, but never denim ... but, don't see why not ...

[BOB HILL]

Some of those overalls may have been canvas or ticking.    Bob

[T*O*F]

When I was a kid, I made a fishing bag from the leg of some old jeans.  Used it to carry my hooks, sinkers, stringer, etc.  Sewed it up on Grandma's treadle Singer sewing machine.  This was circa 1950's, not to far removed from your 1920 date.  It was probably done, but not an item that would last for posterity.

[T.C.Albert]

Denim? Did the images captions call it "jeans"?
tca

[Hungry Horse]

I've seen shooting bags made from old shot bags, and parts of flour sacks, but not denim.

  Hungry Horse

[Nate McKenzie]

It would be so easy to make from the leg of the pants that I can't imagine it not being done somewhere along the line.

[T*O*F]

From Wikipedia:
"Contrary to an advertising campaign suggesting that Levi Strauss sold his first jeans to gold miners during the California Gold Rush (which peaked in 1849), the manufacturing of denim overalls only began in the 1870s. The company created their first pair of Levis 501 Jeans in the 1890s."

[T.C.Albert]

In the mountains, "Many kinds of cloth were woven for clothing. Tow linen and flax linen were used for
lightweight clothing. Wool could be spun in various weights and woven as twill or plain weave,
in various colors, stripes, and plaids. When wool and linen were combined in a plain weave, i.e.,
a wool weft woven with a linen warp, the result was referred to as linsey or linsey-woolsey.
Linsey could be woven in a range of weights and had many uses. Another combination fabric
used for heavy weight clothing was called “jeans,” “Kentucky jeans,” or “janes.” Jeans was a
three-harness twill woven with a linen warp and either cotton or wool weft." http://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1165&context=etd

If they were so poor they were scrounging pouches from pants legs, the fabric was likely to have been homespun too. Typically mountain jean stuff was brown I believe. Ive never seen an old one from levi's type material either, but there could have been a few maybe...?
tca   

[Clark Badgett]

T.C. brings up good point above. Jeans were most definitely a type of twilled weave and normally a cotton/woolen blend. I think Denim was an 1870s +/- introduction from France. There is an original pair of Levis out there in some museum from the 1870s but they are made from indigo dyed canvas or duct, and they look absolutely nothing like modern jeans.

[Ian Pratt]

Well, what I'm about to say will do nothing to answer the question, but I'm saying it anyway since this reminded me of my old hunting pouch and some of you may get a kick out of it - for a long time my hunting pouch was an open topped affair made from a piece of jeans leg with the bottom sewed up. The straps were also jeans material. My "powder horn" which I carried inside the pouch was a Little Kings bottle with a makeshift spout. At some point I dyed the pouch in hopes that people would find brown less humorous than blue. 
 In later years, Maryellen started making pouches and I became the proud owner of one her first bags. Not long after that, Tim Crosby took pity on me and made me a real horn which was not composed of green glass.
 We apologize for this interruption and now return you to the regularly scheduled thread already in progress.     

[WKevinD]

Ian, you just proved what "make do" is all about.

Kevin