I’ve been working on another denim upcycle. If you have some blue jeans to cut up for an upcycle, you can turn it into a basket for your desk or craft area.
You will need:
- old jeans (I used kids jeans for a narrow basket)
- scissors
- trim
- sewing machine (or needle and thread)
First of all, I cut the jeans off around 7 inches from the bottom. I don’t mind the rough bottoms as long as the jeans are clean before you start. I think the frayed bottoms look good too!
Turn the piece inside out. Sew straight across the bottom 1/2 inch or 1 cm from the cut edge. You could hand sew this if you don’t have a sewing machine.
Now flatten the bottom and pin 1 inch (2.5 cms) from each corner. This will make your basket more boxy at the bottom and easier to stand up.
Stitch across the line.
Cut off the triangles on the outside of your last stitch.
Turn the basket inside out.
The square corners that you just created will help it to stand up. You can roll over the edge once or twice.
So you can stop there and fill up your baskets with small toys, pens, sewing items, nail polish etc….or…add some garnishes.
I pinned a bow on one but decided to add more color…. I added a felt flower left over from coffee cup warmers (see the link below).
Then I thought of some trim…maybe with some pompoms. The kind sold in the drapery part of the fabric store. Yes!
The solid white and pink trims cost approx. $2 per yard but the colourful larger trim was $8.99 per yard. Ouch! Fortunately it was on sale for 50% off so I got a yard.
Turn the basket inside out to pin the trim in place.
Before sewing, turn the basket right side out again to check out how it will look.
Here is my colorful pompoms too. They make me so happy!
Take it slow while you are sewing on the trim. The pompoms keep trying to get in the way.
There you have it!
I used children’s jeans so that the basket would be small to hold a bunch of nail polish, sewing supplies, Lego or pens. If you use adult jeans and the area higher on the pant leg you could use it to hold magazines Fill the bin with craft supplies, bigger toys, or whatever things need gathering up to keep your place tidy!
Below I have put some more upcycle projects that I posted in the past year. Have a look!
T-Shirt Refashion – Add details from baby clothes to jazz up plain clothes!
Upcycle your favourite baby clothes by sewing them on as appliques onto new clothes!
My girls had some super cute baby and toddler clothes. Not too eager to move away from the preschooler stage – I had a really hard time passing on certain items. I just loved them so much! Some of my favourite tops had sequins and buttons and adorable little features. Here are two examples of this that I saved for a few years so that someday I could re-invent and re-use it. At long last….today was the day!
Yesterday I found this plain pink hoodie for $8.50. Good quality but very plain. Meanwhile, this tiny top from the toddler years, was in my stash of things I could imagine getting a second chance.
Cut out the part of the t-shirt that you want to save. I knew this would end up an odd shape because of the printed flowers at the bottom so I didn’t include all of it. Trim it into the shape that you like and lay it on the shirt to see how it looks.
Next we attach it! I pinned the black butterfly part of the t-shirt like an applique and got ready to sew it to the pink hoodie. Notice the direction of the pins is actually the wrong way. I should have them facing the other direction because I want to sew clockwise around this. Pinning correctly helps your project go smoothly and saves you getting jabbed by a pin. Ouchie!
Be very careful to only sew one layer of the shirt. Knowing that this is possible I still managed to do it twice!
Zig zag stitch around the applique going in a clockwise direction. Use a matching or complimentary thread color. On this project I chose pink thread to match the hoodie.
It was a beautiful spring day but it was chilly. Perfect for a hoodie! My model loves it and even got a puppy kiss!
I love to recycle, repurpose and reinvent new things. This sort of project I could do over and over. It’s so easy! Don’t think that this is just for kids. If a garment has a great picture or embellishment on it-why not salvage it by sewing it onto something else.
I searched high and low to find a good picture of one of the girls wearing the shirts used in this post but there always seemed to be something blocking the embellishment. Here they are at Grandma and Grampa’s having a tea party and using the good china. M is wearing the little black top but you can’t see it. When I look at the photos of them it makes me so nostalgic for their younger days. It’s probably why I save their shirts…happy memories of years gone by.
Thanks for taking the time to read to the end. I hope you enjoy your day!
…
