Recycling Jeans into Pot Holders

My family goes thru a lot of jeans and I hate throwing them away. So I have started taking the old jeans and making things out of them. This project will work with almost any pair of jeans but adult male jeans work better since they have more denim. The jeans I used for these projects were pretty torn up. They had a huge rip in the seat and were covered in paint.

Denim Potholders

Supplies needed

Jeans

Scissors

Sewing Machine or Needle for hand sewing

Thread (color of your choosing)

Decorative items (optional)

You will want to first wash and dry the jeans. If they are wrinkled then be sure to iron them flat. Find a good size spot without any rips or stains. Since the jean I was using were covered in paint I choose to turn them inside out. Decided on what size you would like your potholders this will also depend on the size of the jeans. Remember that the legs of the pants taper at the end. You can choose any shape and size you want. I chose just a simple square. Cut through both layers of one pants legs. This will leave you with two pieces of fabric. Continue to do this until you either have the amount of potholders you want or run out of space. Remember to use both legs of the pants. I made 6 potholders with a large pair of men's jeans.

After you have cut out your potholders decided what side of the fabric you want to use. For this project you will place the insides together. You will not need to turn the fabric inside out like on most projects. Choose whatever color threads you like. You can coordinate this to match your kitchen or simply your favorite color. With the right sides facing out sew along all the edges. I chose to use a zig zag stitch but any stitch will do. You might want to go over the seam more then once to make the seam more durable. After you have sewed your potholders throw them in the washing machine. This will fray up the edges and give it a very cute look. After washing you may need to cut some of the longer frayed ends.

That's all there is to it. You now have cute and tough potholders. You can also choose to add decorative items to your potholder. A button in the middle is very cute or you could also add iron on decals. There is a lot you can add to this project to make the potholders match your kitchen. This is a very cheap and easy way to recycle jeans into something useful.