In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to create something that involved recycling {instead of upcycling or repurposing} so I dug through my stash of supplies for an idea. I love reusing fabric so I found a pair of old jeans that I had saved and decided to recycle the denim.

I made a lined denim basket with their original pockets intact. Usually when clothes are damaged or stained they end up in the trash. I wanted to recycle the usable parts of the denim to save them from the landfill.

I started by cutting all of the seams off of a pair of worn jeans. This left me with some nice flat pieces of denim to work with. I used a Sizzix Square, 8″ Finished Die and cut five squares of denim, five squares of lightweight cotton fabric for the lining and five squares of medium batting. You can hand-cut other sizes but it was so easy and precise to use the die.Next sew a 1/4″ seam along the side of one denim square to the next with right sides together until four squares are sewn together creating an open cube. Pin the fifth square to the bottom with right sides together and sew the bottom of the cube. For the lining, pin the wrong side of the cotton lining to the batting. Next, pin the right side of the cotton lining/batting to the next cotton lining/batting square and sew with a 1/4″ seam. Repeat until four squares of cotton lining/batting are sewn together to create an open cube. Pin and sew the right side of the cotton lining/batting square to the right sides of the open cube. This should now look similar to the denim cube as shown above.

Place the denim cube inside the cotton lining/batting cube with right sides together. Pin the two cubes together along the top edges. Sew a 1/4″ seam along the edges leaving a 3″ opening to turn the piece. Finish the piece by stitching along the top edge of the denim basket. Besides being a great way to recycle old denim, this would also make a practical Mother’s Day gift for any mom that likes handmade, recycled storage pieces.

PRODUCT LINK
Sizzix Square, 8″ Finished (8-1/2″ Unfinished)

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