For years I've been saving old blue jeans with the idea that I would one day use them to make darling quilts for my boys. Whenever Robert or any of the boys wore out a pair of jeans, they got stacked on the shelf in a closet. Wednesday I looked at the shelf and asked myself an important question: Am I really going to take the time to cut up each of these pairs of jeans into useable squares that can then be used to make a quilt?The answer was a resounding NO!
The decision to part ways with the stacks of jeans (a 21 pound stack of jeans, no less) was quite freeing. I no longer had a dreaded project hanging over my head and I was about to get a whole closet shelf back. It felt great.
However, I didn't want to throw the jeans in the garbage. It seemed like such a waste to relegate the stack to a landfill. And I couldn't give them to Goodwill. As if someone would actually pay money for jeans with holes in the knees! I decided to offer my stack to my Facebook friends, but shockingly, there were no takers. (Well, I did have one friend from Wyoming express interest).
Finally I posted them for free on Craigslist and I found a taker.
I was surprised that I didn't have more interest in my 21 pound pile of jeans. After all, there are a plethora of crafts one could make from old jeans. The word du jour is "repurposing." Or, if you prefer, "upclycling."
A quick google search turned up online instructions for using old jeans to make not just quilts, but wallets, purses, a kindle case cover, a notebook cover, a lunch sack, baby bibs, an apron, Christmas stockings, a vest (or at least that is what she's calling it), and this amazing, but very heavy looking dress.
I was impressed, however, with all the footwear you could make repurposing old jeans.
These slippers seemed pretty comfy, but for the life of me I could not find directions to make them. (Not that I'd have any old jeans for the project anyway...) 
For sale on Etsy, these cute mary janes.
4 comments:
Congratulations! That's quite a few pounds. We have a RS clothing exchange tomorrow and we just dropped off two boxes and a bag of stuff (and 3 furniture photos). I didn't weigh it, or we could compare notes. I saved old jeans for awhile too, thinking I would turn them into shorts. So often there's nothing wrong with them other than the giant knee-holes. But I gave up on that. I hear you.
I'll take any quilt books you have that you were going to use with the jeans!!!
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My favorite part of this is that you weighed them.
I know! I think my nerd status has been solidified.
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