Turn Cool, Old Denim Into a Warm, New Quilt

To save space I try to cut the seams, hems and waists away so that I'm only left with the leg front and back. The left pile has been cut while the right side has not. It takes up less space and it speeds things up when you are ready to quilt. In the meantime my stash is out of sight underneath my work table.

When I first made quilts I never kept account of the process or took photos along the way. However, I can tell you that I made them with the basic tools: a long ruler, my kids lead pencils to mark the cutting lines and a good pair of scissors, that was it! I bought sewing thread that was the closet match to the colors I would be sewing together and I always made sure to have a denim needle in my sewing machine, size 16.

You'll notice from the photo above there's a cutting mat, well my kids grew and left home which leaves me the luxury now to buy more gadgets! These are great for quilting because you can cut your fabric with ease using a rotary cutter to any pattern you would like. Although for denim I still stick to my scissors once I have the cutting lines marked with a lead pencil, it washes out.

The blue denim was cut into strips and then brick size blocks in 3 shades of denim in a staggered pattern that I made for my son. The black quilt is simply the varying leg widths that the jeans were that got sewn together to form strips. The quilt was made when my baby brother graduated high school, he still has it now in his home 10 years later!

The pink one for was for my daughter, it was a little more advanced and used recycled denim in less common shades along with the purchased pink canvas type material. The denim is such a heavyweight material that I do not add batting to the middle, I just sew a coordinating cotton sheet on as the backing.

The abstract one I made for my daughter was made later as I got more confident with my sewing skills and wanted to push my boundaries. I took a piece of bristol board and cut it into 16" square, then I haphazardly cut diagonal lines to make the template for my block. Again, using only the primitive tools of a ruler, lead pencil and scissors I cut the shapes , I think it worked out okay.My daughter chose the pink shade for her walls and this was her bed covering for a few years, now it's a keepsake. Again it's over 10 years old, has been washed over 20 times and it's still like new!

These are just three samples, I've made at least a dozen but sadly they were given away before I got a chance to photograph them. I hope this has inspired you to try the simple method or challenge yourself to go for a little more complicated pattern. They make great backdrops for photo shoots too, thanks for viewing!