Things to do with old Jeans
My partner has lost a lot of weight and one Saturday handed me two pares of jeans and a pair of jean shorts and asked me to craft with them. I thought, challenge accepted! This is what I have done with them.
Firstly, I had an old boring notebook lying around, that I couldn't wait to jazz up, with a new cover. I used a piece of the trouser leg, the button, and button plack as a fastener, a whole load of PVA and all my high school book covering prowess. Ok maybe I'm a little rusty, but it is supposed to be rustic and I think it is much cuter now. It is lovely and tactile, and I am thinking about decorating it with fabric badges.
Why didn't I add a pocket to the front you ask, well they all got used for my next project. I have a confession my sewing draw is a mess, so my partner suggested I make a sewing stuff tidy, using all the back pockets. Firstly I tried just glueing the pockets to the wood back of the picture frame, but the PVA wasn't strong enough to hold the pockets to the smooth wood. So I decided to sew the pockets to a backing fabric and use friction and some staples to hold it in the frame. Can we have a round off applause for my sewing machine that actually sew thought the jeans fabric? I was so surprised as it's only a lightweight electric beasty. Anyway, I am super pleased with how it turned out.
Some of the legs of the black trousers became a dress for a little girl. It's cute but I'm not really that pleased with it. I'll admit I rushed it, but I did have several problems with it too. Firstly jean trouser legs front and back panels are not the same width. So when I matched the old trouser side seam down the middle of the dress, I ended up with a two-inch overhang on both pannels so I needed to cut them to match. With about four inches missing from my dress, I was worried that the dress would turn out too small, so I decided to add in two side panels. I had seen some cute upcycle's combining jeans with lace and knowing I had some lace leftover from my wedding bouquet. I cut out two lace pieces and two backing fabric to become flared side panels. My other problem was I ran out of lace trim, so I used a slightly different, (but still matching trim) but I ran out of that too, so the lace on the back is made up of three different pieces of trim. I don't think it looks too bad, but by then I was done with it and instead of leaving it I rushed it. I added some silk flowers to the front to hide some of the seams but I don't think they have helped.
I fell in love with this throw pillow on Pinterest and just had to make one. I already had the stencil for the hexagons from the patchwork blanket I made. I made the ombre colour by carefully picking patches from the leg of trouser around the knees, so I got this cute fade. Except for the very light patches which I had to bleach. The bleached hexagons got quite distressed but thankful that is the desired effect, eventually with use and washing the rest of the patches will match them. Once I had sewed all the patches down to my fabric, I turned that into a pillow and stuffed it, unfortunately, I have run out of stuffing, so it is a little flat in places, but don't worry more teddy bear stuffing is on its way to me.
The last thing I tried was to make a feather, to be honest, I was sceptical too. In fairness, it kind of worked. The idea is, you sew around a piece of string that is between two layers of jean fabric. once it is secure, you then pull out the loose threads, until only the one secured by the string remain. Shape it and then you are done. I can see where mine went wrong, firstly my string is not straight and goes down my feather too far, secondly one of my layers is wonky but lastly, I didn't cut it to a nice shape.
I still have loads of fabric leftover, so if you guys have any suggestions on what I should do please leave a comment below or on Facebook. I would appreciate any recommendations.
Firstly, I had an old boring notebook lying around, that I couldn't wait to jazz up, with a new cover. I used a piece of the trouser leg, the button, and button plack as a fastener, a whole load of PVA and all my high school book covering prowess. Ok maybe I'm a little rusty, but it is supposed to be rustic and I think it is much cuter now. It is lovely and tactile, and I am thinking about decorating it with fabric badges.
Why didn't I add a pocket to the front you ask, well they all got used for my next project. I have a confession my sewing draw is a mess, so my partner suggested I make a sewing stuff tidy, using all the back pockets. Firstly I tried just glueing the pockets to the wood back of the picture frame, but the PVA wasn't strong enough to hold the pockets to the smooth wood. So I decided to sew the pockets to a backing fabric and use friction and some staples to hold it in the frame. Can we have a round off applause for my sewing machine that actually sew thought the jeans fabric? I was so surprised as it's only a lightweight electric beasty. Anyway, I am super pleased with how it turned out.
Some of the legs of the black trousers became a dress for a little girl. It's cute but I'm not really that pleased with it. I'll admit I rushed it, but I did have several problems with it too. Firstly jean trouser legs front and back panels are not the same width. So when I matched the old trouser side seam down the middle of the dress, I ended up with a two-inch overhang on both pannels so I needed to cut them to match. With about four inches missing from my dress, I was worried that the dress would turn out too small, so I decided to add in two side panels. I had seen some cute upcycle's combining jeans with lace and knowing I had some lace leftover from my wedding bouquet. I cut out two lace pieces and two backing fabric to become flared side panels. My other problem was I ran out of lace trim, so I used a slightly different, (but still matching trim) but I ran out of that too, so the lace on the back is made up of three different pieces of trim. I don't think it looks too bad, but by then I was done with it and instead of leaving it I rushed it. I added some silk flowers to the front to hide some of the seams but I don't think they have helped.I fell in love with this throw pillow on Pinterest and just had to make one. I already had the stencil for the hexagons from the patchwork blanket I made. I made the ombre colour by carefully picking patches from the leg of trouser around the knees, so I got this cute fade. Except for the very light patches which I had to bleach. The bleached hexagons got quite distressed but thankful that is the desired effect, eventually with use and washing the rest of the patches will match them. Once I had sewed all the patches down to my fabric, I turned that into a pillow and stuffed it, unfortunately, I have run out of stuffing, so it is a little flat in places, but don't worry more teddy bear stuffing is on its way to me.
The last thing I tried was to make a feather, to be honest, I was sceptical too. In fairness, it kind of worked. The idea is, you sew around a piece of string that is between two layers of jean fabric. once it is secure, you then pull out the loose threads, until only the one secured by the string remain. Shape it and then you are done. I can see where mine went wrong, firstly my string is not straight and goes down my feather too far, secondly one of my layers is wonky but lastly, I didn't cut it to a nice shape.
I still have loads of fabric leftover, so if you guys have any suggestions on what I should do please leave a comment below or on Facebook. I would appreciate any recommendations.
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