Repurposing A Pair Of Jeans Challenge ~ Project 1

For this first repurposing project, I’m going easy and using one of the pockets.  The jeans I’m repurposing are carpenter jeans and have these really nice sized back pockets.  One thing some of you may like about this project is that there is no machine sewing involved at all!  Just a bit of hand sewing, as well as some fabric glue and some iron-ons for embellishments.

I decided to make a little purse for my 5-year-old granddaughter.  I cut out one of the back pockets and included the portion of jeans that the pocket was attached to.  I also cut along one of the binding seams so that I could use that as a strap for the purse.

I hand sewed the strap piece on to the pocket.  Keep a thimble handy as it helps to push that needle through this thick section of fabric. 

I had some pink iron-on letters in my supplies and just made it to do my granddaughter’s name, which fit perfectly at the bottom of the pocket.  She loves animal print, so I used some of this leopard print ruffle trim I had gotten at Hobby Lobby on clearance a few months ago, knowing I would use it for different things I make for her.  

I attached the two pieces I used here with fabric glue (Aleene’s is the fabric glue I like).  I usually stick a piece of cardboard between two pieces of fabric when I’m using fabric glue, it keeps it from seeping through to the fabric behind.

Then because I didn’t want anything she might put in it to fall out, I went with a large snap closure, which I also hand sewed in place.

In about an hour I had this cute little purse all done!  I did leave it overnight for the fabric glue to dry fully, before presenting it to her.

I looked on Pinterest to find some other items you could make with the pockets.  Pot holders. 

Source: Simply Soares

Coasters or mug rugs.

Source: Hunted Interior

A phone charger holder.

Source: Wonderful DIY

Organizers.

Source: DIY Enthusiasts

Or how about a gift card holder.

Source: Art By Wanda

And here it is being modeled by it’s happy recipient!  With a new baby photo bomb.

So there’s one project down and I still have (practically) the whole pair of jeans waiting to be transformed!  I have another easy project coming up for next week.  

Repurposing A Pair Of Jeans Challenge

This is a challenge I am giving myself.  The challenge is to take a pair of my husband’s old jeans {that he was getting rid of} and seeing how many different things I can make out of that one pair of jeans.

If you’d love to play along, let me know in the comments and, maybe at the end of my challenge, I’ll set up a linky so others can show what they have made out of a simple pair of jeans, too.  You can get loads of ideas off pinterest ~ some of mine will come from there and others I’ve had in the back of my mind for some time. 

 

So I hope you’ll follow along.  I will be sharing my first project at the end of this week!

Cubicle Decorating

The office where I work part-time recently moved ~ cubicles and all.  I decided I would like to dress up one of my cubicle walls where I have just push pinned some family pictures.  I got this idea after seeing how some plastic holders were attached to the cubicle walls with Velcro and they seemed to be holding up.  I figured if the Velcro could hold up plastic holders they could hold up light weight picture frames.

I got these frames at Michael’s.  I see them whenever I’m there but could never come up with anything to do with them until now.  I already started painting one before I remembered to take a picture!

You can see how thin these wood frames are from this side view.

I painted all the frames and, once they were dry, I measured out some self-adhesive Velcro from a roll I bought at Walmart.  On the little square ones I used Velcro dots that I already had in my craft room.

I just used the rough side of the Velcro; since the cubicle walls are fabric the Velcro sticks right on them!

Here is a part of my cubicle wall, where I already took down two of the pictures.

Here are my new framed pictures on the cubicle wall.  A much nicer look, I think!

It’s like a mini gallery wall!

Cubicle walls can look nicely decorated, too!  Fingers crossed they’re still attached when I go into work tomorrow.