How to Make a Patchwork Denim Quilt

The best patchwork denim quilts are formed from various shades of blue denim. A simple patchwork pattern will best show off the different blue tones in your quilt. You may have saved outgrown, out-of-style or worn-out blue jeans until you had enough for a quilt. Now's the time to enjoy the process of making a patchwork denim quilt.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Denim
• Cotton fabric
• Batting
• Thread
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Poster board
• Large safety pins

Making a Denim Patchwork Quilt

1. Make a 6.5-inch square template out of poster board.

2. Trace around the template onto the denim. Cut out the denim squares.

3. Make strips of denim squares. Choose two squares, at random. Sew them together, right sides together, with a ¼-inch seam. Add another square to the last one. Continue in this manner until the squares are as wide as you would like your quilt.

4. Start another strip, as in step 3. Continue making denim strip squares until you have enough for the quilt's desired length.

5. Press all seams to the right. Do not open them as you would sewing a garment.

6. Sew the strips together, forming the length of your quilt. Use a ¼-inch seam to sew the strips of denim, one after the other, with the fabric right sides together. Press all of these seams downward.

7. Cut the quilt backing from a coordinating cotton fabric. It should be slightly larger than your denim quilt top to allow for any pulling during the quilting process. Trim it later to the correct size.

8. Sandwich (layer) your quilt. Place the backing fabric face down on a large work area. Put your layer of batting on top of the backing fabric. Last, place the quilt top, on top right side up. Use large safety pins to connect the three pieces together. Start in the middle of the quilt and work outwards.

9. Hand or machine quilt the three pieces together. Trim the backing fabric and batting to match the edges of the quilt top. Remove the safety pins.

10. Make 1½-inch wide binding for the outside of the quilt from the same fabric as used for the backing. This will go around your entire quilt, but it is easiest to apply if you cut lengths for each side of the quilt, plus ½-inch each.

11. Press ¼-inch along the long side of all of the bindings. Sew the unfolded edges, fabric right sides together, on the top of the quilt, on the two long sides first, with a ¼-inch seam. Leave a ¼-inch selvage out at the end of each of the sides.

12. Repeat step 11 with the shorter top and bottom binding pieces, except fold the edges inward ¼-inch at each end to make a nice binding edge.

13. Fold all the binding sides to the back side of the quilt. Hand sew the binding with the folded edges under.

Tips & Warnings

• The squares of denim may be cut larger or smaller, as desired. The denim squares may be interspersed with alternate colors of fabric, just make sure they are of the same thickness (heaviness).

References

• How to bind a quilt - video