Old Jeans, reusing .. let's get started.

I always hear of people who have been saving old blue jeans in their basements because they just KNOW someday they will drag them out and make them into something. Yup, I'm one of those people too. Time to start sorting and choosing ... the next few posts will deal with jeans.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: is to get out those jeans and find a large space to work in.

You'll want to get rid of any part of the jeans that has paint, oil, grease or a stain that is too difficult to remove. I'm not THAT much of a junker... you do have to throw somethings out. Look over each pair, backs of legs tend to get less wear and tear than knees. If the knee is blown out or worn so much that you can see the shape of the knee in it .. that can go too. Decide if you want to work with jean bums or not. Throw them out if you don't want them. If you're not sure... then set them aside in a separate pile.

Best cutting tool I know of is the rotary cutter. For this job you want a new blade, a self healing mat and a straight edge of some kind.

First cut off all the legs.

Cut up the crotch, so the legs will lay out flat.

Cut below worn knees or yucky parts . Keep backs of legs if the fronts aren't worth redeeming.

Make piles of jeans according to weight. Thicker jeans, stretch jeans, light weight jeans.

Once you've done this... you can start filling trash bags for the rag bin. The good pieces of fabric you'll have to find boxes to store them in until you've picked one of the projects. It might seem like a lot but it's going to take alot less room and be easier to store than when they were whole and in a big pile.

Keep an eye open for the blue genes post.