Sunday, December 17, 2023

Denim ornament upcycle

 

Three denim star ornaments

It's the holiday season. While my Jewish-Muslim family does not do a lot for Christmas, many of our friends celebrate. I had a few events to attend, a few gifts to give and a desire to be sustainable. My stash of scraps and materials to upcycle is also getting too big for the space that I have in my house.  Given all that, I decided to start crafting. 

While I seldom wear jeans because I can't find jeans that fit well (but someday maybe I will make a pair),  I have found that I  like to work with denim especially piecing together different colors. I found the directions to make quilted denim stars from Pillar Box Blue and thought I would make a few as Christmas gifts for a few of my friends who celebrate. 

The directions from Pillar Blox Blue were fantastic, so I won't repeat the step-by-step, but I will share my tweaks. 

I made the first star using a 7cm template as described in the blog, but that turned out a little large for a Christmas ornament so I created a 6 cm template for the additional ornaments I made. The seams on the first one were a little messier than I wanted so I switched my sewing foot to a quilting foot and that helped me sew more precise about 1/4 inch seams. I also chain-stitched the diamonds for multiple starts didn't have to waste time or thread. 


 Denim diamondsSewing the denim star


I basted the ribbon I wanted to use as the hanger on the edge of the right side of the denim star before I sewed the denim to the backing. That way the ribbon emerged nicely from the seam once I turned the star right side out. I also used small pieces of fabric to stuff the stars. The opening from which I stuffed it was pretty small so I used a funnel and a chopstick to help push the scraps in.  While I did attach a button to the center, the ornaments looked good without additional quilting stitches so I skipped that as well.

I  was pretty amazed at how well the stars turned out. And I was able to wrap the stars with upcycled materials before gifting. 

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