Repurposing Jeans: Denim Quilt

Happy Monday!  Over the weekend, I did some re-arranging, and I found this denim quilt that I had made last year that I wanted to share.  First off, I am not a particularly good sewer (although it’s on my list of resolutions to work on this year!)  But even though I’m not the best sewer, I am fairly efficient at repurposing items.  One item that we go through a lot of in this place is denim jeans.

I really hate throwing away perfectly good items that can be re-used.  Most of our clothing – and especially the kids clothes that they grow out of so quickly – go to donation.  However, jeans around here get used until they are full of holes or splashed with paint or bleach, and that wouldn’t be something that I would want to donate.  So a few years back, whenever we’d go through a pair of jeans, I’d cut out as many 4×4” squares of denim that I could from them and stored them away in a sewing basket.

After a while, I realized that I had assembled a good deal of denim squares and so I started to sew them together.  One of the great things about doing a denim quilt is that you don’t have to worry about folding edges under and hemming them just so.  In fact, you do the opposite – sew them together on the right side!  Instead of worrying about how the edges line up, the edges will instead fray (after washing) and you can trim them down to size.  The idea is here that more fraying is the desired result!  A note: be sure you’re using a denim needle in your sewing machine, and not an all-purpose one!  Learned this the hard way. 

I actually had enough squares to make two denim quilts.  On the back, I stitched a very basic stitch of a twin flannel sheet on the opposite side as a backing.  I’ve always loved the combination of denim and red together, so I had this in mind at the very outset.

This is probably one of the easiest blankets that I’ve ever made, and I repurposed not only a bunch of jeans, but old sheets as well.  Now this is one of my favorite blankets, having both the softness of flannel and the heaviness of denim to keep me warm at night.

As you can see, there are even pocket squares on these.  My kids love sticking little notes to me inside the pocket, and it’s fun to read what little surprises that they left for me.  And, of course, it goes very well with my vintage afghan, too.  I’m still saving up my denim squares.  Maybe next time I’ll try something a little smaller, like making a book tote or some pillows.

How do you repurpose your old jeans?

~ Mellie ★