Denim on My Mind

My three teenage daughters go through a lot of pairs of jeans. Some they wear to death, some they cut off into shorts, some they tire of and pass on. If a pair is still wearable as-is or is easily mendable, I pass them on to our fabulous local thrift store. If they're a lost cause, I add them to my denim stash. Here are a few things I've made recently . . .


. . . a small area rug, a lunch bag, a tote, and a pair of slippers. They're all my own designs. The slippers were inspired by the denim revolution slippers tutorial, but I ended up drafting my own pattern and assembly method. The lunch bag was originally a single leg, while the tote was two legs sewn together. The "trim" on the lunch bag and slippers is stash t-shirt strips. So is the script on the tote bag.

I still have lots of denim left, so there will be more projects to come!

P.S. Thanks for the encouraging comments on my first post. I'm delighted to be participating in such a great community.

Functional but boring, until . . .

This is the back view of a previously shortened skirt. It was functional but boring, until I accidentally scorched it with an iron . . .

I added a few pockets from a pile of unmendable jeans my teens have been sending my way, and now I actually LIKE this skirt. A happy accident :)

Next post: what I've been doing with all the other jean parts.

P.S. This is my very first blog post of any kind. I'm looking forward to picking up some new skills! I'm a forty year-old mother of five (my kids are ages 3 - 19), and I've been refashioning since I was 12. I originally started out of financial necessity, but now I'm passionate about refashioning for environmental reasons. It's also a fabulous creative outlet! This blog has been tremendously inspiring. My past 'refashions' have been mostly of the mend and/or rehem variety, but I'm gearing up for some bigger challenges thanks to all your amazing ideas and examples.