Re-purposing Denim

I save all kinds of fabric scraps, but one of the most useful has been denim.  I save everything from old skirts, jumpers, or my hubby's jeans, to leftover material from skirts or dresses I, or one of the girls made.  Some of the ways I've made use of these scraps are:

1) Patches.  Let's face it, not every hole someone makes in a pair of jeans or a skirt can be covered by one of those pre-made patches.  Since I take in mending from friends, whose husbands work manual labor, I've seen some pretty whopping holes.  Take it from me, lawn care guys can be the worst at making those super-sized holes.  It's easy to make your own patch any size you need by using some wonder-under (fusible webbing).  Just make sure you zig-zag around the patch so it will stand up to a fair amount of abuse.

2) Patchworking denim scraps into a triangle in order to make a pair of jeans into a skirt.  The girls got a skirt from one of their favorite stores a year and a half ago that looked like someone had taken a pair of jeans apart along the inside seams, and then sewn random pieces of denim into large triangles to be fitted between the left and right legs (front and back), in order to form a skirt. (I'll have to post about this one day.)  The skirt  was really cute, but it was also fairly expensive - around $60.  We decided we could make them ourselves, and have done so several times now.  Since I keep denim scraps on hand, all it cost us to make one very similar to the first was $4.50.  I don't know about you, but I'll take $4.50 over $60.00 any day of the week.  Thrift shops and Goodwill are great for your budget.

3) Pot holders. Since denim is heavy duty, it makes some really durable pot holders.

4) Patchwork rugs.  Here again, denim makes a pretty durable rug that can stand up to a lot of washing.  Here's the one Beenie made for Ri's hope chest.

She sewed the top together by herself.  I thought she did a marvelous job, especially since all she's ever sewn before were a couple of small pillows for her bed.  The dark pieces with little critters on them are pieces I saved when I was making what became T.Lynn's favorite skirt.  The back was made from the back panel of an old denim jumper that had started to wear out at the seams.

I'm sure you could find many different ways to put extra denim to good use, so if you haven't already, start saving it now.

I've linked this post with the Homestead Barn Hop.