As a mom of three boys, I've learned there is never a shortage of holy jeans. No, not Sunday jeans! Jeans with actual holes in them. My boys (husband included) are the outdoors, rough and tumble type. I, on the other hand, get thin jeans from my thighs doing their thing. Before I knew it, I had entire Amazon box full of dysfunctional jeans. Too holy or worn for a garage sale or donation center, but too much potential to just throw away. Anyone who knows me knows that I have trouble throwing items in the trash to begin with, especially items that could be made into something new and awesome.
I don't know how or why this idea came to my mind (probably subconsciously with the help from the interwebs), but I decided to make bed quilts for my sons. At the time, I only had two sons, thus two blankets. Now, I have three sons, so if I start now, the third quilt will be ready by the time he's in a larger bed. Anyways, here's what I did...
Jean Quilt Tutorial
- Cut the jeans into strips. Cut out the pockets, side seams, and holes. Don't worry about measurements, just get as much usable fabric out of each pair of jeans. You'll take care of measurements later.
- Sort your jean scraps by width – putting like widths together.
- Trim strips to make rectangles with 90ยบ corners. Don't worry about the length. For the width, make sure you have a stack of strips with like-measurements. For example, I ended up having a stack of 6", 7", and 8" fabric strips.
- Determine the finished quilt size. I measured the boys' mattress and added 6" for each side and the bottom so the finished quilt would hang just a bit off the mattress.
- Piece quilt. I'm not sure if this is how regular quilt people (Don't worry, I know they're called quilters.) do this, but I put painters tape in the middle of my living room using my desired finished quilt size. Then I started laying out quilt strips. For example, I laid out a row of 6" strips and then a row of 8" quilts. I kept my rows long and my overall length even longer. You will lose 1/4" for each seam or 1/2" for each row, so account for this when piecing.
- Double-check your quilt top. Make sure your seams aren't all lined up. Spread out the variation of jean washes (or keep similar washes together – it's up to you).
- Start sewing. Use a jean needed and cotton thread (or your preferred thread and needle). Sew each strip together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Iron seams open. After each strip is sewn together, start sewing rows together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Keep going until all rows are sewn together.
- Iron all seams open.
- Make a quilt sam-ich. Lay your quilt backing out on the floor, right-side down. (Side note: Since my jeans were all pre-washed, I decided to pre-wash my quilt backing too. I didn't want the back to shrink, knowing the front would not.) Next, lay the batting on the quilt back, followed by the quilt top, right-side up.
- Pin your quilt sandwich together. I find this step more tedious than cutting and measuring, so request
helpcompany. I placed pins every 5-8" in all directions. - Top stitch your quilt. Get fancy, or not. I stitched the ditch and then did an additional stitch on each side. Use a walking foot to prevent gathering.
- Trim quilt down to desired finished size.
- Optional: Personalize with name or initials. I used embroidery thread just through the jean layer.
- Optional: After I square the corners and cut off the excess fabric, I like to sew all the way around my quilt, just to keep things together (Side note: If you want to personalize your quilt, do so before sewing around all edges).
- Prepare binding. I bought some lightweight jean. I added 1/2" to my binding width to account for bulk.
- Bind quilt. I learned from this tutorial.
- Trim any loose threads.
- Tumble in the dryer. This helps remove any straggling loose thread or batting.
- Marvel at a job well done.
- Optional: Take pictures. Text said pictures. Instagram said pictures. Share said pictures. I'm pretty sure your family and friends want to see why your sewing machine has been your kitchen table's centerpiece for the past couple months (Yes, I did say months. Don't judge, it takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to finish projects with a full-time job and three kids. As it turns out, my kids still need me to do stuff for them like feed them meals and such.)
Jean Quilt Photos
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| Topstitching Complete. |
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| Both Quilts Ready for Binding |
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| I wanted to add a personal touch. |
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| Love the look of the topstitching from the back! |
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| Binding Complete |
Confession
This project took me three years to complete. Yes, THREE YEARS!
- Year One: Come up with a brilliant idea. Cut fabric. Buy all supplies. Realize that you can't start big projects in December and expect them to be finished by Christmas.
- Year Two: Stare at unfinished project box. I really was stalling. My sewing machine was on its last leg and I did not want it to die on me.
- Year Three: Buy a beast of a machine. Nothing was standing in my way, except my lack of motivation. My wonderful husband helped keep me focused. We planned sleepovers at the grandparents' houses for quilt-a-thons and worked hard. He's pretty darn wonderful. He actually pieced and sewed an entire quilt top, while I was in bed with the flu during one of the aforementioned sleepovers.
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| All Snuggled Up |
Regardless of how long this project actually took, I'm really happy with how these quilts turned out. My boys love them too. They snuggle with them every night and drag them to the living room for movie nights and forts. I can totally see my boys taking these quilts off to college someday, but for now, they are being properly broken in.
What do you like to do with old jeans? Are you going to try making your own jean quilt?
Do tell... And don't forget to flaunt those pictures.
Do tell... And don't forget to flaunt those pictures.
Thanks for stopping by!
Leslie-Anne
