I am always short on money and looking for ways to make fun holiday gifts that require little to no money (but may require lots of time!). Over the next several weeks I will post one new idea a week for using various parts of jeans in neat crafty projects.
Project #1: Denim Latch-Hook
Required Materials:
Rug Canvas (I started with 1/2 of a 24x30 inch piece-this will make a small rug suitable for use in a bathroom or a kitchen sink)
Denim from old jeans (Cut these carefully preserving seams and pockets, these will get used in future projects. If requested, I will post a tutorial on how to cut up jeans to preserve the most denim and craft materials. I have it down to something of a science at this point.)
A latch hook
A good pair of scissors, comfy handled ones are good since you will be using these a lot
A measuring tape or ruler
A dark ink pen
Start out with a section of denim cut from the legs of the jeans with the seams already removed. Cut across the top as evenly as possible. This top will be the guide for all your strips so careful cutting is important. Using the tape measure mark out 1/4 inch increments down the length of the leg material, work from top down, not side to side. Usually about 5 or 6 marks along the width of a leg is enough to use as a guide for cutting. Cut along the guide marks, cutting the denim into long narrow strips. You can cut a little at a time or a lot at a time. I prefer to cut a little, work with what I've cut and then cut some more. This saves my hands from the strain of using scissors too much and keeps the denim from fraying too badly as I work.
At this point you will have long skinny strips of denim. You want to cut these into 3 inch lengths approximately. I use one piece as a guide so I don't have to keep measuring. Here is a picture of prepped jean legs with seams all cut and some strips of denim cut.
I am going to make the assumption you know basic rules for latch-hooking. If not, look up any basic tutorial on using a latch hook. There are a lot of them. Use the pieces of denim just like you would yarn. It is not as easy to use as yarn and there is a decent amount of resistance pulling the fabric through the holes in the canvas. Unlike with standard latch-hook you won't work in every row. You will work in every hole in one row, skip the next row, every hole in the next row, and so on.
The pattern will go something like this:
HHHHHH
HHHHHH
HHHHHH
This will come out looking something like this:
I am using different colors of denim to create a pattern. The photo below shows the pattern from the back and also illustrates the skipped row detailed above.
This is not a project for the impatient. I have already put several hours of work into the rug pictured. I will post pictures of the finished project as well but the point is, this takes a lot of time.
Hope you enjoy and have fun!
