I’ve been on an upcycled jeans kick, with some of the results here, here and here, and thought I should show a few of the other things I’ve made. Please note that the introductory photo shows it all!

I need a few denim things for the Fibres West residential programme, which is happening in October, and which has the theme of “Double Down Denim”, which is somewhat close to my heart.

All the committee members (I’m the secretary) and the assistants wear decorated Alice bands so that we can be easily identified. The problem with an Alice band is they have a tendency to slide off the back of my head, or if they are tighter, they hurt me. I decided to be proactive this year and make a crown, in the hope of persuading the others to do likewise.

I used my Cricut to cut out the denim, and I’m happy that this is a zero waste pattern as the pointy bits tesselate. I didn’t get a photo of this, but will next time. I knew that I would need two denim crowns to join together (hence the tesselating, and some strong interfacing so that the points wouldn’t collapse. I found some scraps of heavy duty interfacing and jigsawed them together on the denim.

I then stitched round the two layers of denim with the interfacing sandwiched in between, and began having fun.

I cut some flower and heart shapes on my cricut so that I would have a little stash ready to go. This is the leftovers from a jeans leg, plus a few of my shapes.

I found a couple of heart shaped buttons for Sewdoitforheart, which promotes women’s heart health, and stitched them on to flowers and hearts. I used a combination of machine stitching and sashiko.

I began thinking about all the things to do with the heart, and decided to use one of my mother’s mouse buttons on a heart – who has had a fright from a mouse, and where do you feel it? Racing heart! I also used one of my mother’s earrings on a flower as that gladdened my heart.

At the centre front I used a big flower, a smaller flower and a piece of silver leather in the shape of a dot. I like how the petal forms a shape on my forehead and looks a little bit blingy.

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I then fiddled around with some sashiko stitching, sewed on the ends of a waistband and some deconstructed belt loops, I made a flower from a scrap and added some bling.

I like elastic on my crowns so went hunting for something interesting and was delighted to find a short piece of denim coloured elastic with some gold decoration. It could not have been more perfect!

It looks scrappy here, but I have tidied it all up, so it’s looking better. It’s so comfortable to wear!

I am a victim of my own success – I showed the rest of the committee and was immediately asked to make another 12! I agreed to make the basic crowns but they are all proper artists, so will do a much better job of the decorations than I did. I decided to google denim crowns and found some on Etsy, constructed differently but selling for $275. I could go into business!

I do have a denim apron, which would be appropriate for the workshops, but it was from a Jamie Oliver function so I didn’t make it, and it’s rather simple. I had a mental picture of the type of apron I wanted and knew which parts of the jeans would meet my needs. Then I happened upon a Youtube video and it corrupted my thoughts so I have finished up with a functional apron but it doesn’t really match my original ideas, although parts are the same, just constructed differently.

The actual apron is the bottom of a leg turned upside down so the hem forms the top, and onto that I have sewn a back pocket. I was going to just use the pocket, but the video instructed me to cut the pocket out so the fabric underneath was still attached and I would have two pockets. So silly, I don’t need two pockets there, but that’s what I did – gah.

I used the waistband to create a neck strap, with a functioning button and buttonhole from the original jeans.

So the leg of the jeans goes almost to the bottom of the apron and on top of that I have sewn the front of the jeans finishing at the crotch curve, and kept the waistband. This whole section creates another big pocket with functioning side pockets. The belt loops are useful to hang things on, and I found one of those zippy ID tag holders to keep my snips on. Not sure if I will keep this, but when I remember the snips are there it’s quite useful.

I used another waistband at the bottom of the “shorts” part to cover the raw edgeand then yet another one to finish off the bottom of the apron and make it a little longer.

Although I don’t love what I did with it, it’s a highly functional apron and should work really well for the class I’m doing at Fibres West. I’ve worn it quite a bit and it does protect my clothes and does have lots of pockets for me to lose things in.

I realised as I was writing this blog that I didn’t have a heart on the apron – gasp! I grabbed one from my little stash and blanket stitched it on. It covered a raw edge, so it was extra useful.

I wanted to make some denim boxes, which I thought would be quick and simple. Hah!

First I had to deconstruct the jeans. I’ve found some new or near new workwear jeans, but they come with the reflective strip round each leg and some have two strips! They are well sewn on and the side seams have to be opened to get them off.

Anyway, I got them all apart and began cutting my boxes. This is how they come off my Cricut – I might need a new blade.

I was making three different sized boxes which meant I needed two of each size so I could glue and then stitch them together.

These jeans look like they are bull denim but they have a tiny bit of elastin in them, which is annoying for all sorts of reasons, but they stretch a teeny bit when being cut out and when being glued together.

It took a big chunk of the day to stitch them. They are a flat pack design so the assembly is just a question of putting tabs into slots. Can you see?

Here are the three boxes . I used a label off a different pair of jeans to give them some provenance.

They stack inside each other really neatly.

The problem now is what to do with them. I want to keep them but don’t need more stuff. I could put them in an exhibition which is happening as part of Fibres West and even sell them. Or I could donate them to a fundraiser where someone will pay $15 for them which somehow doesn’t reflect the amount of time and effort I put in. I have time to consider my options!

And the last photo is of me hanging about in the kitchen waiting for deliciousness to come out of the oven. Not sure why I’m wearing the crown, but my husband took this photo, so he must have liked it.