Blue Jeans Quilts

Everyone has a drawer or box of old blue jeans. Did you know you can make a denim quilt? The idea of frugal quilting with recycled levis is an excellent way to use up these sturdy, leftover garments. Denim quilts are hard-wearing, popular gifts for the younger members of your family, great for use as picnic quilts, camping or perhaps a bed for a special pet. Make a wallhanging jeans quilt with pockets in some of the blocks for a teenager's room or for a college dorm - the pockets can store small personal treasures!

This article will cover some sewing and quilting techniques for denim, ideas for quilt designs, quilt top layout samples and patterns for various easy quilts, and many links to sites on the Web to see and learn more about blue jeans quilts.

There is also a Gallery of Jeans Quilts here with photos and information sent in by quilters from the Quilting Forum. They share how-to information to help you plan and sew your own quilts.

One fun technique is to sew your jeans quilt with the seams to the outside. Using 1/2 inch or deeper seams makes the quilt sturdy and also lets the fabric fray. The raw edges then have a decorative look. I've made a couple illustrations using Electric Quilt to show two simple layouts for denim quilts  with seams to the front - one with simple squares in different shades of indigo denim and one with a rectangular "brick" pattern. A brick pattern is a good block to cut from jeans' legs which tend to give more bricks than squares sometimes. You can make more complex blocks, but denim is hard to sew and keeping it simple will make it more fun to work on.

This Simple Squares Jeans quilt shows one way to tie the quilt with decorative red floss or yarn. Tie in the middle of the block instead of tying at the seams to save having to go through the thick seams.

A brick style block may be handy for cutting blocks from the legs of smaller jeans

How-to Information for Jeans Quilts

• Dawn's pages: Working with Denim in a Quilt - lots of good suggestions for denim quilts
  

• Doreen's Circle Jeans Quilt (looks like Cathedral Windows) - photos with instructions
   

• "Too EZ" Denim Quilt pattern - very easy using 6.5" squares, raw edges
  

• Sewing Denim tips - general denim information, not jeans quilts specific
  
• Floor Flops blue jean quilts - frugal ideas, the 3rd one down has tips on denim quilts
  
• Sunshine Guild Denim FAQ - a collection of tips on making jeans quilts
  
• How to Make an Easy (tied) Quilt -  how to make a simple tied quilt, jeans or other fabrics.
  

• Tips for Denim Preparation  -  with a table to help know how much to cut.
  

Our own Gallery of Jeans Quilts - photos sent  in by readers, more are welcome !

Susan
Susan Druding

copyright ©2000 Susan C. Druding

Susan
 

 

---

---