Making your jean Quilt or picnic Blanket

If you can cut a straight line,
if you can sew a straight line,
YOU CAN DO THIS!

Get out your sewing machine, thread it up and set your stitch to a nice strong one.

Forget what your sewing teacher taught you about right sides together. We're going to break that rule in this project.

Take your first square, both front and back. Put the wrong sides together. Do this will all your squares.

Next you will need to pick up your first square and put the two back together (while still holding the fronts onto them) and sew a straight seam along one edge. You'll want a seam allowance that is alot larger than you're used to, 3/4 inch at least.

Now you should have four pieces of fabric but only two squares joined by one row of stitching. Attach your next square to the last one and keep doing this till you've done the first row.

Next you'll want to sew each row the same until all the rows are done.

Stop! set up all your rows on the floor again, make sure everything is where you wanted it to be, there's no going back after this stage. Take time to rearrange rows if you're not sure.

You'll want to sew row 1 to row 2. Wrong sides together, seams pinned open. Keep your seam allowance the same as you used for the joining of the squares. Do this till all the rows are joined.

Hint: There is a strangely named tool, a hump jumper, that may help if your machine does not like the amount of denim a join makes. Usually sewing and quilting stores carry these.

Now you should have a quilt! It's not quite finished though, you have a fair bit of work to go but it feels heavy in your lap and satisfying to look at.

You will need to pin open all the outside edge seams and sew a line around the edge at the same width you did the inner seams. No need to bind or hem these edges.

The great thing about jeans... they fray. Remember cut offs? That's the feel of "ragging" a quilt. It works well with cottons, flannels and denim. So why fight it? Lets use that to add character to our project.

In order to get the full affect of ragging you will need to snip the seams. This can be fun or exhausting.. it's all about the right tool. Below you will see a picture of the snipper I recommend. Regular scissors will not work well and I guarantee you'll never make one again if you try them. Fiskars makes a great snipper. This is NOT a thread cutter... they are NOT strong enough.

Once again, time to call a friend, rent a movie and put on the tea. This is way more fun when you share it with someone else.

You'll need to snip all the way around the edge. DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE STITCHING LINE! YOU WILL REGRET IT SO WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Once the edge is done, I tend to cut one row at a time till all the rows are snipped in one direction.

Turn the blanket and do all the rows in the other direction. It is not unheard of to miss something. When you think you're done. Lay it out and walk on it.. look at it and find any bits you didn't snip.

Don't you feel great? It's coming together. You'll soon be able to show off your prize.

To the laundry room. Wash your snipped quilt.

This helps the "ragging" fluff out more and gives your quilt a softer look.

To the dryer. A hint here... jean takes a long time to dry then it's this heavy. You will need to visit your dryer about every 10 minutes. This is because you might want to change the placement of the quilt so you don't end up with a damp bit in the middle. ALSO EMPTY YOUR LINT TRAP ABOUT EVERY 10 MINS. It will be full, trust me! You need to keep emptying it so you'll have less of a mess to clean later and so you don't start a fire. Once it's dry, I take mine out on the porch and snip off any threads that I missed and shake out any loose bits.

Now sit down, relax and snuggle under that wonderful heavy, warm blanket. Make sure you tell everyone how you made if for "free" yourself!

Jean Blankets ... what's the next step?

You will need to choose a design that suits your needs, your likes and what you have time for.
Here I have big squares on the back side, with little squares to make a border.
The top is made of strips sewn together, then cut to the smaller square size and sewn together to fit with the later square size. Again a boarder of smaller squares around the edge.

Your entire quilt need not be jean. If you want you can use cotton or flannel scraps to make either the top or bottom of the quilt but I'd stick to jean one side or the other and not mix them up. Keep your other fabric on the opposite side of the jean. I'll get to more examples of that in a later post.

Lay out your design on a floor where it won't be disturbed. I'd leave it there at least a day, resorting and changing as the mood strikes you. This gives you time to dream and fidget with the squares till you get what you like.

Off you go... find your unique design, then I'll tell you about ragging the edges.

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.