How to Give Old Jeans New Life
Is there anyone left in the world who doesn't own a passel full of jeans in various states of wear? Many of us own lots of jeans in lots of sizes as well. Since there's generally no shortage of jeans to choose from, it's great to have an abundance of ideas to revive or even resurrect them. There are almost as many ways to use denim as there are jeans out there to use. You can even go to thrift stores if you're short on old enough jeans to try all these ideas out on. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
-
-
1
Look at your closet for all the old unwanted pieces of clothing you have. You can repurpose your jeans with other old clothes quite easily. Cut out flowers or other pictures to use as homemade appliqués. (See the eHow article on how to make homemade appliqués from old clothes.) You can put appliqués on the pockets or here and there but they also look great going down the side seams of both legs. A row of pretty roses or kittens or fleur de lis can really dress up ordinary jeans. Cutting out two or three different objects and doing a repeating pattern of them across the backside or down the legs also works well. Play with the cutouts and you'll come up with all kinds of ideas. You can use iron on appliqués as well.
-
2
Try patches as well. You can buy all kinds of iron on patches. Choose a fabric - or use denim patches taken from another pair of jeans. It looks good to do several geometric patches on each leg. Make a couple of rectangles in different sizes and a few squares and do a nice geometric abstract pattern down each leg. These don't have to be the same on each leg to look great. Sometimes the more random they are, the better. You can hand or machine sew these on with matching or contrasting thread.
-
-
3
Get out your embroidery floss to create a handmade work of art. There are iron on patterns to follow or you can use tracing paper or transfer paper to get a nice design. Choose a color or a few colors that coordinate nicely and go to work. For a floral, pick two greens and two to four colors of flowers that go well together. Try experimenting with different stitches for a great effect. There's a great tutorial on all kinds of stitches available at the craft and fabric links web page listed in the resources section of this article. There are also free patterns there and on many other websites also.
-
4
Try your hand at painting. There are amazing types and colors of fabric paint available now. There's no limit on what you can paint on your clothes these days. Try choosing a theme like dragonflies or pansies and peonies. Choose whatever you like. You can paint a flower garden or a nature scene or a wild abstract. Look at the website listed below for gorgeous free patterns to choose from. Check out the wonderful instructions and patterns at the website listed below.
-
5
Use sequins, shell findings, old jewelry and beading to dress up your favorite jeans. Sew them onto the rims of the pockets, around the waistbands, down the side seams or in any kind of patterns all over the place. A flower garden climbing up the legs is a great look as is an ocean scene. Mix and match these with ease for a real one of a kind feel. Check out what's in style now. Themes come in and out just like colors so scan the big name stores on the net and check out the colors and themes and patterns that are hot right now.
-
6
Use a little imagination and a lot of times you can use things laying around the house to do a bang up job of making old jeans come to life again. Check out the web - there are more ideas out there than you could do in a few lifetimes. Pick something that you can have fun with.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Sketch a basic design idea on paper before you go ahead with it on your jeans - unless you're using a pattern. Try out stitches on old scrap fabric first. also to get them down before you start.
Beware - this kind of stuff can get addicting! You may be remaking everything you own in no time.
