Upcycled Jeans - Sweatshirt Refashion

On a previous post we took the leg of a pair of jeans and turned it into a wine bottle gift bag. (See below for a link on that!) Today we have another upcycle project for those jeans that we are cutting up for parts. We are going to upcycle a plain shirt and add a love heart made out of old jeans.

You will need:

t-shirt or sweatshirt
old blue jeans (actually just a leg)
needle
thread or embroidery floss
scissors

I found this shirt on a clearance rack for $7.00. Perfect for my project. You can use an old t-shirt or sweat shirt you already have in the closet. Or, this is an awesome solution to a favorite shirt with a stain on the front.

I just realized I didn’t take a photo of the jeans before cutting them into the heart. To make the perfect heart, find the widest part of the pantleg and cut out a square piece the maximum size you would want your heart to be. You can always trim it down if you cut it too big at first. Fold the square in half with right sides facing in. Draw a half heart onto the back of the denim with a white chalk. Cut through both layers of fabric so its perfectly matching.

It’s a shame to ruin the perfect heart but we want to make it a little frayed. Using your fingers, pull on the edge pieces of the denim heart so the threads begin to pull away.

After pinning the heart in place I decided I wanted it a bit more frayed than it was. I pulled the edges again with a scrap of sandpaper and pulled some more on the edges. This works surprisingly well.

Sewing on the Heart

Choose a colour for your embroidery thread. I decided to go with white. Thread your needle and knot the end.

Start from behind and pull the needle through the shirt and denim heart. Continue in and out doing a running stitch. Try and make your stitches the same distance apart all the way around the heart.

Finish by knotting it on the inside. Could it be any easier!?!?!

Here is Gus and Gemma with the upcycled shirt’s new owner. It was a surprise gift to my daughter B and she seemed really touched by it. Her pants are also an upcycled idea using strips of old leggings to sew onto a new pair. See the link below-they turned out pretty fun!