Rag Jean Quilt

Another thing I had piled up in that fabric cabinet was a bunch of jeans. I still had jeans from back when my kids were little! I just had to do something about that. I began by cutting up the jeans into 6 1/2 inch blocks and stacking them. I found that some of the jeans were either quite thin or had marks or stains that I didn't want showing - so I also cut out blocks of homespun material and sewed these pieces on top of the yucky jean blocks with a big X. This piece is 50 X 70.

Next came the clipping. I had some of it done on this first picture, but had more to go. It seemed endless, but if you work on it while watching TV - it doesn't seem so bad. I also used my Fiscar snips and after a while you learn if you hold the fabric just right and snip with tension on the material - it works better most of the time.

Then came the washing. Boy does that thing ever shed! I think it may have been the cause of needing to call the repair man out too. While it didn't seem to shed so much in the washer - we had trouble later on and I think a lot of those little strings got caught in the washer pump. All is OK now, but I've learned to throw the thing in a big pillow case that is whip-stitched shut - or take it to a commercial laudry.

I also learned that some of the jeans didn't fray equally. There's a light blue in there that didn't fray at all. Those were hubby's old brushed denim jeans. Another must have been some poly stretch jeans, because what was left was a really different blue fray. Combined though it all worked together and we have another great throw to use. You can see I also added some smaller pieces to the sides. I had enough of these to border 2 sides of the throw - virtually using up all of the jeans in that batch. Note: These are the jeans I cut up this round...there is still a big stack of jeans waiting in that cabinet, but that's enough of that for now. This one ended up 55 X 75. I seem to like finishing about that size.