Recycle Jeans- The Picnic Quilt

This year one of my husbands birthday gifts was a new picnic quilt.This is a very simple project that takes only one day to make! If you have kids it takes one day to make it and one day to fix your house after the kids have run free for a day. You can make these out of new denim in some very cute designs but the whole point here is to recycle and get something useful for "free".
For this quilt I used a 6 1/4"  quilting square. To make it easy on yourself you should use a rotary cutter. My blade was dull so I used fabric shears... it takes a lot longer with shears.

Once you have cut your squares all you have to do is sew them together! Make sure, if you want the silverware holding pockets, that you sew the pockets so the top is facing inward.Check out the mess that my helper made! It is dangerous to let a two year old loose while you sew.

Once you have your rows sewn together all you have to do is sew a stitch around the edge to protect from too much fraying. My sewing machine is very old and doesn't have a lot of stitches but the newer ones will have some really pretty trim! You can eliminate fray by hemming the quilt but my husband likes the frayed edge. You can make this quilt to go on beds, all you have to do is find a soft flannel for the back and a fun binding!

Recycling Blue Jeans part 1

This blog is for my SIL because she loves blogging and she loves projects.

I have been super busy with blue jeans lately. It's time to recycle the ripped, the stained, the old, and the ones that no one knows who they fit in the first place. We restyled a pair of my daughter's flipflops, made a picnic quilt, and made baby Blake a diaper bag. The bag is unfinished. I needs a great big red B. C. A. embroidered on the back pocket. So here is my unfinished project and how to do it if you want to recycle your blue jeans too.

Start with an old pair of jeans. These were actually in reasonable condition but my husband tore them working on one of his projects. Cut off the legs! I used a quilting square and rotary blade to even this out.

 Take one leg, using a quilting square and rotary cutter and cut to length. You can cut it to any desired width.

Set aside on side of the leg for the bottom of your bag. Use the other side to "widen" the bottom of the pants to the desired width. To do this you will cut two triangles and rip the seam of the pants up to the pocket, or further if you need to widen the bag a lot. Make sure the bottom of the triangle is the width of the bottom of your bag.

Before attaching the bottom of the bag, like the jeans with your desired fabric. I used what I had on hand the bag cost me $2.00 for a heavy duty zipper. I made and interior pocket but I decided that I like a more open diaper bag.  I used some elastic that I had on hand and made interior bottle holders. You can't see the inside but on the sides there are holders for medicine, and one for diaper rash cream.

 The front pockets are roomy enough for baby powder, more bottles, or my stuff! I like shorter straps but if you want something longer steal your husbands belt ;)