Leftover Denim

I have tons of jeans that either don't fit or have ripped or frayed beyond repair. I just hate to throw out the material because denim is so versatile. So I have scoured the internet looking for crafts to use my old jeans for and figured I would share a few of my favorites with you.

Denim Do-All Bins from Makezine.com

Denim Tote Bag from Love To Sew Studio

Studio Box from Janeville

Gift Bag from Older and Wiser

Hope this inspires you to do something crafty with your old jeans instead of throwing them away. Happy crafting!

d20 Bag

I've put a lot of thought into what my favorite thing I've made is. It took some time because I've been crafting for awhile but after much consideration I've landed on this...

my first attempt at the the d20 bag. For all you non nerds a d20 is a twenty sided dice used mainly in tabletop role playing games. If you want to represent Dungeons and Dragons with just one object it would be a d20. It is the quintessential tabletop roleplaying item and the people at Evil Mad Scientist have given us the ability to recreate it in bag form. Not only have they given us instructions on how to sew your own d20 bag but also how to sew a d12 bag for all your favorite Barbarians and Great Axe wielders.

Now seeing as that particular one was my first attempt at it, not to mention one of the first things I ever sewed myself, it only came out sew-sew (haha get it.) It is floppy and doesn't have the nice edges of the one in the instructions, there are threads hanging out, and places where edges didn't quite meet up but I still love it. I've since learned from my mistakes on the first one and made a new one. 

It came out a lot better this time. As it turns out having a zipper foot for your sewing machine is a good thing to have when sewing in zippers, who would have thought. If anyone decides to make your own I have a warning for you: be aware of what you are getting yourself into. This bag requires you to cut out 60 pieces of material and that alone is time consuming, not to mention dewing all those pieces together. Make sure you use heavyweight interfacing if you want the nice crisp edges but if you like the floppy version just use some light or medium weight interfacing. I hope your first attempt comes out better than mine.  

Dark Fairytales

I'm a tad bit spoiled as a crafter. My mom does everything crafty so I have access to all sorts of crafty supplies and machines. My biggest advantage has to be the embroidery machine she purchased a few years ago. I love it. Most of the things I have embroidered have been for costumes and other small crafty endeavors but when I saw the Dark Fairytales design pack on Urban Threads I knew I would have to use them to make a quilt.

I loved the color on the examples and wanted mine to be stitched out similar to them. I opted to stitch them out on black cotton instead of dark grey, mainly because I had a large supply of black cotton on hand. I used silver for all the outlining because metallic thread stands out so nice on dark material.

When I first embroidered the designs I didn't have a pattern for the quilt in mind yet but eventually I came up with something...and then I tweaked it a bit.

Once I finish sewing all the black and red strips onto the pieces with the embroidery they will end up looking like this.

Then all that is left to do is sew them together. Likely it will be then put into storage for a few years before I get to quilting it.