Denim Up-cycled! part 1

So, as with most quilt projects, this one has a story:

I have been collecting denim for the last 12 years. I had a project in mind and realized that purchasing new denim off-the-bolt can be pricey so I collected old work jeans from my husband, father-in-law, grandfather and anyone else who had a pair they were getting rid of. Most of these jeans had holes and stains and were no longer good for wear, but as it turns out, could be good for making a quilt!

I collected the jeans in a large black garbage bag and over time the collection grew. We have also moved a few times over the years and each time as my husband would almost break his back carrying this rather large bag, he would complain and tell me he was going to throw it away if I didn't use it for something. In his defense, the bag probably weighed well over a hundred pounds before I started this project. :-)

So the search began for the perfect project to make out of my denim. I found pictures of faux-cathedral-window denim quilts on-line but I wasn't able to easily find instructions. I love the outcome of my quilt so much that I took pictures of the steps and am providing instructions here for any other denim collectors out there. And, if you don't have a collection of denim and would like to make a quilt like this, your local Goodwill store or thrift shop would be a great place to start.

Start by washing all the jeans - if they have stains on them, you want to make sure any chemicals, etc are washed off so they won't destroy your quilt as time goes on. Then, I cut apart the denim by taking off the thick seams at the hems and sides. The best useable pieces were in the legs, particularly if you can find relaxed fit jeans.

Next, I went to my kitchen with a square quilting ruler in hand and measured my mixing bowls. I found that I could get 3-4 circles of this size out of the front and back of each leg of each pair of jeans for approx. 12-15 circles out of each pair of jeans. Some of this depended on the wear on the jeans I was using and where the holes were. As far as stains were concerned, with the way this quilt goes together, you have a wrong side of the fabric that is completely covered so you can hide a stain.

If you have a stash of denim and a stash of other cotton quilting fabrics on hand, you can make this quilt at almost no additional cost. There is no batting in this method of construction. The only thing that surprised me was how much thread I went through so make sure you have a couple large spools depending on how large you want to make your quilt.

Confession: I had a few fabrics that I loved too much to cut up so I
never used them! I love denim too, so I decided this project was
worthy of these fabrics. But, before I could cut into my favorite, I
had to take a pic. No other quilters have this problem, right?

Once I had my mixing bowl picked out, that determined the size the finished blocks would be as well as the cut size for the quilting fabrics. I cut my quilting fabrics into 5.5" squares. With the denim, I laid my mixing bowl upside down onto the wrong-side of the pant legs and traced around it with a Sharpie marker. Then I used a pair of scissors and cut out my denim circles. When I started out, I didn't know how large I wanted to make my quilt so I initially cut 75 denim circles and then went back and cut out more once I got started.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's post where I will give the step-by-step construction for this fun up-cycled quilt!