Wrapping Up the Jeans Challenge

One Pair of old painting jeans can mean nine or more new denim accessories. Who knew? Here's what I've got:

1. a funky denim headscarf (part of one pant leg)
2. a stitched denim cuff (part of another pant leg and a back pocket button)
3. a cute little flower ring (from little scraps)
4. a sassy little purse with rolled denim flowers (back pocket, leg, waist band and button)
5. a funky and chunky chain necklace (inseam of pants legs plus leg fabric)
6.  a rolled denim brooch (other back pocket material)
7. a sweet little rolled denim flower barrette (scraps again)
8.& 9. AND a little inspiration bag plus notebook (front right pocket, fabric from front of leg, inseam of leg, and zipper fly of jeans

There's still a bit of material left but inspiration hasn't struck so I'm calling that a maybe addendum for the future. Right now, after a couple of weeks staring at the same fabric I'm ready for a change. Here are some more pics of the inspiration bag I just finished up. It was a total hodge podge of pieces and really would've made a really confusing tutorial. So I opted to show you some pics of the finished bag instead. The notebook was created from a small mini with cover removed. Then I glue sticked on some of the jeans fabric. The holes at the top were punched with the crop-a-dile. I stitched the flower on through the paper backing. It's pretty cute. :) Note what a fabulous closure the zipper fly of the jeans made for the main compartment of the little bag. I really like how that turned out. It's the perfect size for a phone, a small wallet, whatever. In the back pocket I've got my coupons I always forget, a place to put the business cards I also seem to forget/or a small glue stick. Perfect! It has been a GREAT challenge and I hope that it's given you some ideas and shown you what a really old pair of jeans is still capable of. Enjoy the pics!

Simple Jeanius #2- Painters Jeans Cuff Tutorial

Front of Cuff

Old Jeans + A New Challenge= A Fabulous Denim Cuff. Why old painting jeans? First, I love the feel of denim, but ESPECIALLY worn in denim. I also love the way the paint splatters or gets wiped onto the jeans, and thirdly, I just really really love that distressed faded look that a really worn pair of jeans gets. And because I'm a bit short, the bottoms of the pant legs get very very tattered looking from scraping the cement whenever I walk which really adds to that worn in look. :)

The Challenge part of the equation is to upcycle an old pair of painting jeans. Yesterday, I showed you the how-to for the head scarf I made and today I've got this cuff. As part of the challenge I've been limiting myself to just a few materials, as I attempt to reuse as much of the original jeans as possible. So far I've got the head scarf, this cuff, a necklace, a cute little ring, and a bag in the works. I hope you enjoy!!
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Back of Cuff

Painters Jeans Denim Cuff Tutorial
Tools and Materials
Old pair of worn out painting jeans- preferably boot cut
embroidery floss in both light blue and denim
old shell button
scissors
needle

Step One: From the bottom of one of your pant's legs cut a strip that is approx.
8 inches in length and about 3 inches in height. (You might need a bit more if your wrist is a little large. A tip would be to wrap the fabric around your wrist before you cut it to length. Then make sure to tack on an extra inch so that you can fold under a half inch on either end.)

Step Two: From the inseam of your jeans cut a strip along the seam that is approx. the same length as the fabric in step one (approx. 8"). Cut close to the seam on one side but leave about a 1/2 inch fabric allowance on the other side of the strip. If desired feel free to fray this edge by pulling some of the threads out.

Step Three: Using the light blue floss stitch the small strip from step two to the raw edge of the larger strip from step one. Using a "x" stitch, stitch along the bottom edge of the top strip, overlapping the raw edge and the fabric beneath with your stitches (as shown in photo for Step Four) .

Step Four: At the right side of the cuff bend under about a 1/2 inch of the raw edge and stitch down for a nice edge finish. I used a straight stitch with my dark blue embroidery floss.

Step Five: Cut the button from the front fly of your jeans. Rather then cut out just the button, I cut a 1"x 1" square around the button. Then using the dark blue embroidery floss straight stitch this to the left edge of your cuff.

Step Six: Next cut a strip of fabric from your original jeans that is about 3/4" wide and about 3 1/2 inches in length. Fold fabric in half width wise and place it around the button you just stitched on, then pull around the other end of the cuff and decide how much of the loop you need to get the right fit around your wrist. Next cut the strip making sure to leave at least an extra 3/4" at each end to stitch to the right edge of your cuff. Now that you've sized it, fold it in half width wise (wrong sides together) once again and using your dark blue floss stitch the two raw edges together as shown.

Step Seven: Bend the stitched loop in half and place behind right edge of cuff. Stitch securely into place. Tip: I'd double check the placement of the loop at this point by once again wrapping it around the button and then holding it around my wrist, then I'd double check how much of the loop needs to protrude from the edge. My loop sticks out about 3/4" from the right edge.

Step Eight: The cuff looks great as is, but if you'd like you could add a flower to the center front of your cuff using scraps from the jeans. I free cut three sizes of flower heads, each progressively smaller then the first. The largest is approx. 2" in diameter and is an 8 petaled flower, the second has four petals and is about 1 3/4" in diameter, and the smallest also has four petals and is about 1 1/2" in diameter. For interest I slipped over the middle flower so that the wrong side of the fabric is showing. Then cut a small circle for the center of your bloom that is slightly larger then the button you selected.

Step Nine: Stack your blooms and button as desired, then using your embroidery floss, stitch through the center of the layers, up and through the button, and back down again. Repeat a couple of times. Knot securely on back side of bloom. I left about 3" of extra floss dangling from the back after I knotted and then used that floss to stitch the flower to the center of the cuff. Knot securely and you're DONE!!!

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There you Go! From pant leg to wrist, making a huge style statement in the process. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope you give it a try with a pair of your own worn jeans. Make sure you don't throw away any excess fabric though because next I've got the cutest necklace and ring to share with you. Love to see you come back for that! :)

Simple Jeanius #1: Repurposing Your Old Jeans into a Denim Headscarf Tutorial

Early Spring is a great time for forcing some growth in our lives. This week I've done that in two ways- first, I brought in some lovely forsythia branches and put them in a vase of warm water. It's so encouraging to see those bare branches break into a glorious bloom over the course of a few days. In gardening terms, that is forcing growth. In our lives, forcing growth can be accomplished through challenges we set for ourselves, calls for submissions that we decide to meet, or a new class we take. There are many ways, and I actually have a chapter devoted to this in my book. This week, I've been thinking about a pair of painting jeans that I love, but are worn through in MANY different places and since I had another I didn't feel like patching these. I love denim and especially like the random splatters and swipes of paint that "decorate" the jeans I wear when creating art, so throwing them out was NOT an option. Instead, they've become the beginning point for a challenge. I've found that challenges work best if there are some parameters, so I limited myself to the single pair of jeans, some embroidery floss, and an assortment of old buttons. It's been fun and I can't wait to share pics of all the goodies I've made with you. SO I hope you enjoy the first project AND I'm hoping maybe this will get you to reconsider throwing away your next pair of worn out jeans. :)

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Repurposed Painting Jeans Tutorial #1- Floral Headscarf

Tools and Materials
One pair of old painting jeans (mine are bootcut)
1-2 Embroidery Floss in denim and light blue
Assortment of old buttons
Needle
Scissors

Step One: Begin at bottom of pant leg. Cut just to side of the outer seam about 11 inches. Then measure about 11 inches across at bottom of pant leg and cut from point to point to create a triangle. Set aside. Then, cut jeans along pant seam again to get a strip that is approx. 15 inches in length and about 1 1/2 inches in width. Pull strings at edges to accentuate fray, if desired.

Step Two: Cut a strip from jeans that is about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide. Make small cut in and then tear in half width wise to form two strips that are 12" x 1" in size. These will be the tie strings for the head scarf.

Step Three: Cut some denim from the leg of your pants to use for the flowers. Then free cut a small flower that is approx. 1 1/2" in diameter and use that as a template to cut about 8 more. Then cut 2-3 that are 2" in diameter and about 9 that are about 1" in diameter. Finally cut about 4 that are approx. 3/4" in diameter. It makes the cutting process easier if you stack your pieces of fabric and cut several at one time. Really you can cut as many of these that are any size or shape that you want, but these are the approximates of what I did. Set blooms aside.

Step Four: Using embroidery floss and a needle, hand stitch the 15" strip that
you cut in step one to the raw edge across the length of the triangle. You can straight stitch or create a decorative stitch like the cross stitch I'm making at left.

Step Five: Then bend over the end of the strips you made in step 2 about an inch and stitch one to each side of your scarf to create the ties. Doubling over the fabric like this before you stitch it to the end just adds a little more thickness and strength to the connection point. Stitch securely to end using embroidery floss and needle, going over your stitches as many times as necessary for a strong hold.

Step Six: Stack different sizes of your cut flowers and position on headscarf as desired. I'll often make little adjustments in placement or size of the bloom and then take a photo of the layout before stitching the blooms in place. That way I have a handy dandy little reference to look back at in case the blooms don't seem to fit as well as I sew them on individually.

Step Seven: Select buttons for the center of each bloom and then remove all flowers carefully to side. Place one in position on scarf, and then using floss and a needle come up from underside of floss and go up and through the layers of flowers, through the button, and then back down. Repeat a couple of times before knotting off on underside. Continue to stitch on flowers until all blooms are secure fastened in place.

All Done! Now put it on and show off your handiwork- I'm sure it looks great and you look fabulous!

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P.S.-I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and stay tune for more jeans tutorials (I've got a cuff and necklace done and am working on a few more- all from the same pair of jeans)! Gotta love that!