Up-Cycle Jeans into a Fabulous Quilt! 

Cracks me up that you started out being concerned which way your final fold went and ended up putting in extra seams to maximize scrap use. It turned out fantastic! Well done!

I just found you! I love how you explain the process and show your mistakes, like a real quilter! I’m making one of these quilts now. I had so much trouble joining the pieces by machine. I decided to hand sew them together like English paper piecing while watching TV. It goes very quickly,I’m basically just tacking them together, then I go to my machine and do a fancy stitch right away over the hand stitching. Works great, and no more picking out messy stitches. ,

Geez I have tons of denim and didn’t know what to do with it! I just happen to have this template also, imagine that ! Made me happy

I found your channel today from Cathy Martin at Catbrid quilts. I'm so glad I have! I watched your video on spray basting and I loved it! Then, this one popped up under it and you've given me hope to use up all my jeans! I'm going to explain below but I'm a bit long winded. I have a PILE of jeans I've saved over the last 20 years and got the June Tailor circle template to make the magic circle quilt well before the MSQC came out with theirs. I finally started cutting out the circles from my family's used jeans about 2 years ago and it was a chore but I got started. Some I used a rotary cutter on & some I traced & used scissors. I can't remember now which I prefer. I realized I could get over 20 out of a pair of my husband's jeans and still a good number out of a pair of kid's jeans. I decided to make a quilt 90 inches square for my bed! The centers are mostly from t-shirts we tie-dyed and wore a long time ago. I also added batting to each square to make it extra warm & heavy. So I'm at the finish line now and I've got half of it together & making progress on the second half. Like you, I've found putting together 9 patch blocks much easier than doing rows and it has gone quicker. The edges are unfinished & left to fray so that has made it easier using the denim to fold over the inside parts. The kicker is, I will never make another one of these again but I still have a large plastic tote full of denim I don't want to throw away but couldn't find a use for. I did make a couple of cat safe throw pillows using the potato chip block that used a lot of denim. Now, you've given me hope of using it up. Rotary cutting around a hexagon template is so much easier than a circle! And your method of construction is so sweet! And this will use up my scraps! Its a win, win, win! I'm so excited! And this time I'm going to leave out the batting. I'm totally going to add this project to my list even though I didn't need another one. This will be my side scrap busting project for sure. Thank you souch for sharing your experience and creativity! I subscribed. Have a great day!

Thank you for this video. I bought these templates several years ago & then lost interest when I saw so many people hand sewing them together. Now I know I can do this too!

I love this quilt Michelle. Using old denim jeans is one of my favourite ways to up-cycle fabric. I’ve made lots of bags but I really want to try a quilt now that I’ve seen this. Thank you for showing this project

Great idea for using denim! 🥰Lovely Memory quilt.

Really excellent tutorial. I watched Jenny and the girls from MO Star do this, but I can see from watching you that there is a lot more technique that is needed to get this right. Love your quilt design, too. Fun, colorful, and useful. Tks.

Lovely quilt Michelle. Perfect for a picnic rug. I made one many years ago using cardboard templates and sewed the hexies together in rows. I really like your flower idea. Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without!

I like turning the center piece over to make it look like a flower. I wonder if I can get my grandsons jeans that they have outgrown 😅. This would make a great campfire quilt for cool evening camping trips. Guess I need to go buy this specialty ruler as a Mother’s Day present to myself 😂.

The back does look like a beautiful rock garden

Denim quilts are my favorite❤ yours is absolutely gorgeous on both sides. I don’t have this particular template but I do have a couple of others I use occasionally. I like to sew my denim together, fold it over the printed fabric then sew it down at 1/4” and 3/8” leaving the edges raw. The 3/8” seam isn’t necessary but I like the way it looks and feel like it provides an extra barrier to keep the denim from fraying too far. I like a soft little fray … not a full on rag edge.

Hi Michelle! Your quilt is great! I love the Daisy & Grace hexagon templates - they're so rewarding and fun to use! I've already made a sewing machine cover, a Christmas tree skirt, and I have an ongoing quilt project - so far I have around 200 blocks finished, and occasionally I pause another project to make a few more. I don't know when I'll stop - I guess when I feel the quilt is big enough. I'm not using denim, just regular quilting cotton, so I do put batting in mine, and this project is great for using those odd little cuts from bigger projects. I too just sew mine with a straight stich, and then use a 3-step zigzag to sew them together. I use the Magic pins with the silicone heads instead of clips and that's been working well for me because I can iron the block with the pins still in.

I really love the Olympic fabric! The quilt is amazing.

Really, really like this idea. Thanks Michelle for all the tips and tricks!

I have a big stack of jeans and i might have that ruler too. Great idea. Thanks so much for all the tips

I love this quilt! Looks like I need to go buy that template so I can get started on a new denim quilt. I'm thinking I might flip some flowers over randomly so there will be denim flowers on front as well as back. What fun this is!

I wouldn’t have thought of changing the denim and fabric, either. Thank you for the suggestion, both of you ladies!

Love your fresh idea. Another thought would be to use the denim on the back and fold over the full amount of fabric but do a raw edge.

Great idea, beautiful quilt! Thanks for sharing. ❤👍from Somerset UK

I love your idea! I have those templates and just made one baby quilt. In watching your video, I spied the Curly W, Washington Nationals fabric! I am a native (now living in Annapolis) and love our Nats! So glad to find your channel. 😊

Love Denim. ❤️ I am so right handed too. We think alike. My first ever quilt was made for my eldest child when he was three. It was our park quilt qnd made from my old college jeans and cotton shirts cut in squares, an old wool blanket for batting and a queen size sheet. It was tied. He used it until he was a junior and it was totaled. 😂. That is where I started in 1983. 🎶💐💖🫂

For a blanket to keep in the car, I think some really low loft polyester batting the same size as the denim might be a good idea. Yes, denim is a heavy cloth, but it is also cotton. Once damp, the fabric sucks heat out of you (in the car, in the winter, dampness happens). Polyester will maintain its insulation properties while wet, so the “blanket” would be more effective.

Love your design for putting it all together and the way you did it so it is double sided. I'm currently making one that is all quilting cotton. It has a piece of cotton batting between the layers but it is a much smaller size so I'm doing it by hand. I figured I'd just make it into flowers and then decide how to lay it out, but it will take me a lot longer to make!

Ingenious!

Beautiful quilt.

I really like this idea and keeping it as a car quilt is a great idea! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress and future tips and suggestions❣️ I also watch Cathy Martins RU-vid videos. Thanks for sharing

I think it’s going to be great. I would put a thin batting only because I like the weight. I have so many jeans, and the great template as well.

Adorable! I've made one quilt with my son's jeans using tips from @createwithclaudia. I am looking forward to using your technique to make a jean hexi quilt. Such a great idea !! Thank you!!

I love that! Personally, I don’t think I would take it to the beach. I’m not a beach girl Sand gets into everything I can imagine it getting into those little seams.

This looks like fun- and i have the template, now i need to go empty my drawer of jeans that don’t fit… should be lots!

Clever idea Leah?? and Michelle. I'm not a hexi fan though. I have been saving up jeans and might make myself a purse. But I did find a good video for a jean quilt from Kristen of Scrap Fabric Love that I may do. She's Canadian and lives in Scotland. Like Michelle I have a tall hubby so I can get plenty of use out of his jeans.

I did a fake cathedral window with denim and bits of fabric denim quilts are great

I would glue it down with Roxanne’s basting glue or Elmers glue. Sewable and washable. Thank you for a great idea.

Thanks for the tips on putting together 2 by 2.

Great idea! I have tons of denim waiting to be used. Thanks for sharing! :)

Thank you for showing this beautiful quilt today. I have just finished a Hunter’s Star and am looking for a new project. I have been saving old jeans that I have cut apart already and have a good size stash for the outer part. But my garden needs weeding and a tidying up now that it is warmer so…..

Thank you for sharing this information on the temple and a new pattern I can use

Beautiful ❤❤

Great idea. Darn, I might have to put it on my to do list.

Great Quilt! 😊

I really love this, ordered this template and am going to tackle my tubs of jeans!

Job well done!

I love that quilt! Do you think you could do the same thing with pieces of minky? I have a bunch of offcuts from backings and was wondering what to do with them.

I love this QAYG hexagon temple. I didn't like cutting the larger/outer piece because there is not much to hold onto and was afraid of cutting myself. To solve that I just put the smaller/inner template inside then I don't have to have my fingers so close to the edge near the blade.

I started cutting these out today!

Fantastic tutorial! I really enjoyed this a lot! I have several pairs of old jeans that I can use! I was going to use the circle type block, but I may use this instead. I do have these templates.

Very interesting

Great idea! But I did think about the larger denim pieces…why not only fold over once, stitch down once and from the top and rage the edge? The corners might have to have a v cut…

Well, I would like to make the Denim of the large hex ruler, and fabrics prints for the top Hex and raw stitch or Zig-Zag around the print.

This quilt looks brilliant. Another option might have been to turn over or switch alternate "flowers" to make your pattern more obvious on both sides. Or did you already try and discount that option? I have only used scrap denim in a boro inspired quilt but am very tempted to give this a go. Thanks for sharing.

Such a cute quilt! I think I might try this one since I have a storage bin full of cut-up jeans. Did you try a layout where every other flower is face up? That way, both sides would have flowers.

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What size are both hexagons? I’d like to make my own shapes with my hexagon ruler.

Do you have a pattern for putting this together

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