Crafts and DIY projects mainly using upcycled materials
Nearly every denim apron tutorial opens by cutting up the legs, which is the narrowest part of the garment and the one with the least structure in it. The legs are long and thin; the apron you want is short and wide; and the single piece of a pair of jeans that is already short … Read more
Most hanging jean pocket planters fail the same way, and they fail in about three weeks: someone packs potting mix straight into the denim, waters it, and the cotton starts rotting from the inside while a brown tide line spreads down the wall behind it. Denim is breathable, which is exactly why fabric grow bags … Read more
Most floral hem embroidery fails on the first hot wash, and the thread is almost never the reason. It fails because the flowers were stitched straight through the folded hem, which welds the turn-up shut, puckers the ankle into a slow ripple, and guarantees the jeans can never be let down again. Work on a … Read more
A jean leg is already a tube. That one fact deletes the pattern, the side seam, and most of the fiddly part of bag construction, because what you cut out of the leg is a finished cylinder with two flat felled seams already sewn and already topstitched in gold. What is left to build is … Read more
Denim is the wrong fabric for broderie anglaise. Real eyelet work belongs on cotton lawn, a fine plain weave that turns under a needle and holds a rolled edge the width of a thread, while a pair of jeans is 11 to 14 oz twill with tension running through every seam, which is why a … Read more
A gift card handed over in the cardboard sleeve it shipped in is a receipt with a ribbon on it. One back pocket off a pair of jeans that are past saving fixes that in about ten minutes, costs nothing, and does the one thing the sleeve never will, which is outlive the gift. Below … Read more
Cut a knee slit the wrong way and it will not fray. It curls, then splits, then travels down the leg until the jeans are a pile of blue cotton with a hinge in the middle of it. The frayed knee slit that keeps a clean white ladder of threads across the gap is a … Read more
The difference between bleach splatter jeans that look bought and bleach splatter jeans that look like an accident in the utility room is decided before the bottle is open: where the marks land, how dense they get in one zone, and whether the denim underneath was ever going to lift toward white in the first … Read more
A single worn pair of jeans already contains three or four washes. The knees and seat go pale years before the fabric fails, the whiskers at the front hip lighten in fans, and the denim hidden inside the hem or behind the pocket bag stays close to the shade it left the factory. That uneven … Read more
Most denim bag tutorials tell you to print a pattern and buy new hardware before you cut anything. Skip both. A messenger bag is a rectangle with a flap, and an old pair of jeans already holds the finished hem for that flap, two working pockets, and a waistband that does most of a strap’s … Read more
