Creating My First Jean Quilt Part 1

     I have been saving old Jeans for about 2 years now. I had high hopes that one day I would be able to create a jean quilt for my husband.  Personally I think it will be to heavy but my husband likes heavy blankets. When I first saw this project, the lady had purchased some jeans from her local Goodwill store.  I really didn't feel like buying old jeans at the time.  Besides with six of us I knew that I would have enough eventually.  And now that I have enough let us get started on my long awaited project!

      First you will need to cut up the jeans
to get rid of all of the seams, zippers, buttons, pockets, etc.  You could spend a lot of time going around some of the stuff and using a seam breaker to take off the pockets if you really want to get the most out of your jeans.  I just cut below them and kept moving.  I have cut up about twelve pairs so far and I still have a few more to cut up.  You will end up with four "panels" from each pair of jeans.  

     Once I finished cutting up my jeans, I needed to decide what type of quilt I wanted to make.  Since I had already made a block quilt (on the right), I wanted to try something that did not require to much work and that had a very forgiving pattern.  I will be working with a heavy fabric and did not want to many seams meeting at one place.  The most I will have to worry about is three seams at once.  Even then it may cause a problem and I will need to keep extra sewing machine needles on hand in case they break.  

Now I will mark my pieces and cut them out to the size I want to use.  I will be cutting 1 1/2" x 5" strips.  After oh about 100 strips I decided it may have been a better idea to use bigger strips but oh well.  Can't go back now. I used a sharpie on the back side of the fabric and a ruler to keep my lines straight. 

    Here is what you will have once that step is complete.  Now all that is left to do is make them 5" long.  Again using a ruler you just have to mark and cut.  Keep in mind that my pattern does not require me to have all neat and aligned seams so if they are not exactly 5" that is ok.  So to save time I cut one at 5" with the ruler and then use that piece to cut the rest by putting over the fabric and cutting.

     As you can see to your left they are not exactly the same length.  It is not a huge difference but I can see it.  Since my husband is six foot tall I will be cutting up a lot of these strips to get the size I need.  You will need to keep in mind the seam width when making these calculations.  For example I will be using 1/4" seems for this quilt.  So the final measurement of my strips will be 1" x 4".  I will need no less than 864 strips for my quilt.  I have a very long way to go.  But keeping you strips organized and where you can find them when you are ready to start piecing together you quilt is important.  I am using ziploc bags for this.

     I will be keeping you updated on my progress with this project.  I may be posting other projects I do in between. I get bored quickly and will need something to distract me.  Hope you will come back and see what else I have done.