Rewards
Got Jeans?
Of course you do! We all wear jeans at one time or another and some of us consider them to be our preferred wardrobe. Jeans do wear out eventually and it's normal for our bodies to fluctuate in size, so sometimes we end up with a stack of old jeans that we don't wear, but can't seem to part with! I am one of those people that loves to upcycle and use recycled materials when ever I can. So what should I really be doing with those jeans that I can't part with? Why, I should be making denim yarn with them! That way I'd have the yarn for weaving, knitting, and macrame projects. Crafting is really all about recycling, anyway!
Bell Bottom Blues
Wool and the Gang shows you one way to take those jeans and make a ball of denim ribbon in 12 steps. Thanks for that method! I tend to need things even simpler so here is what I suggest:
1. Get the jeans out of the drawer and admit that that fantasy of ever having a relationship with the pants is over.
2.Grab your scissors or a straight edge cutter. Cut off each leg from the upper pants. Take the hem off of the bottom of each pant. (Now you're getting over this silly idea of keeping these pants, right?)
3. Take a ruler and think about how wide you want your denim ribbon. It doesn't have to be exact as this is a bulkier kind of ribbon but do you want it 1", 2", or what? A thinner denim yarn means you will get more length from the leg as you cut and roll it.
4. Cut on the diagonal! This is fairly important so that once you start you can cut up the leg at about a 90 degree angle to make the denim in one big piece. (Never to be worn as those jeans again, so get over it!)
5. Wing it! I don't want to spend days on this so I get my sharpest scissors and just eyeball it. I literally look at the jean leg and start cutting. I compare the strip every now and then to make sure that I am not going too wide or too skinny. I also gauge a bit on the diagonal because if that is too wacky so will the width of the ribbon.
6. You may need to trim the beginning and end of this denim yarn and then roll it into a solid ball of jeans! One ball for each leg and now you are truly over this silly little heartbreak about your favorite pair of jeans.
7. Oh, wait! You're not over that favorite pair of jeans? You can't do steps 2-6 as it is just too painful? Well then, put that denim back into the drawer and keep living that fantasy!
Here at DGY, we're quite fond of Mother Earth so we have many recycled materials like our chiffon ribbons that you may not have considered using before! We love that we can offer them to you. And our sari wrap skirts are made of recycled materials that we have kept from ending up in the land fill! We care so we do carry many recycled products!
Great nautral fibers, helping Mother Earth, and you still have your favorite jeans in the bottom drawer! How cool is that?
