Upcycling Jeans into Useful and Pretty Woven Placemats

Upcycling jeans you don't wear anymore is a great way to recycle denim. Today's tutorial shows you how to turn them into pretty placemats.

Upcycling Jeans is Good for the Environment

If you are a fan of Project Runway you may have seen the recent episode where the contestants had to make fashion from materials they found at Goodwill.

One contestant Chelsea, made an outfit out of 12 pairs of denim jeans. I believe she made a comment about the high cost to the environment in the blue jean industry, and it made me think.

I'm a huge blue jean user. It's my uniform. I don't wear leggings but prefer jeans. However, I do give them away if they are in good shape, and those that are not, go into my fabric stash. A while back I made a Blue Jean Weekend Bag and today I'm sharing a fun placemat idea made from old blue jeans.

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How to Make A Placemat from Blue Jeans

Supplies

• Blue jean material
• Fabric Glue
• Shelf liner material

Tear strips about 1-1.25 inch wide by 14-16 inches long. I used about 8 strips for the horizontal part of the placemat. 

Then tear strips for the vertical pieces. I ended up using about 11, but that may vary a bit so make sure you have a few extra.

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Lay them out in varying shades or any pattern you like.

Then weave the shorter denim strips into the longer ones. Over and under. Once you have a few in place, it is easy to just lift every other piece to the side (see above) and then set your vertical piece right in.

Next, use a brush and some fabric glue to glue the edges in place on the front side.

Then flip it over and glue the back edges.

As you can see some of my strips are longer than others and that's okay because you will be trimming it later.

Add some shelf liner to the back with more dots of fabric glue.

The final step is trimming any excess away. I used a rotary cutter but good sharp scissors would work well too.

This is not something that you can wash but you could spot clean it.

It's crafty and not exact but I love all the pretty shades of blue. 

Upcycling jeans is a great way to feel like you are doing something resourceful and creating less waste.

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Upcycling Jeans into Placemats

Upcycling jeans you don’t wear anymore is a great way to recycle denim. Today’s tutorial shows you how to turn them into pretty placemats.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Active Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Thrift Store/Vintage

Yield: 1

Author: Patti Estep

Cost: $5

Equipment

• Scissors/rotary cutter
• Small paintbrush

Materials

• Old blue jeans
• Shelf Liner
• Fabric Glue

Instructions

• Tear strips about 1-1.25 inch wide by 14 inches long. I used about 8 strips for the horizontal part of the placemat. 
• Then tear strips for the vertical section. I ended up using about 11 but that may vary a bit so make sure you have a few extra.
• Lay them out in varying shades or any pattern you like.
• Then weave the shorter denim strips into the longer ones. Over and under. Once you have a few in place, it is easy to just lift every other piece to the side and then set your vertical piece right in.
• Next, use a brush and some fabric glue to glue the edges in place on the front side.
• Then flip it over and glue the back edges.
• Add some shelf liner to the back with more dots of fabric glue.
• Then trim any excess away.

Notes

This is not something that you can wash but you could spot clean it.