Have your jeans become so frayed and ripped that you no longer want to be seen in public wearing them? No need to banish them to the garbage can if you are creative and have a sewing machine and rotary cutter or scissors.

Besides wielding scissors to make your old jeans into cut-off shorts, you may design quite a variety of useful things from your denims. I once made a baby shower gift from an old pair of jeans and a towel. I made a paper pattern of a bib, then cut matching pieces from the denim and the towel. Pinning those two pieces back to back, I machine-sewed orange single fold bias tape around the outer raw edges to finish them. I sewed another length of bias tape around the neck edge, leaving enough of the bias tape to make ties to tie the bib around the baby's neck. You could make the bib more useful by utilizing the back pocket of the jeans, handy for storing an extra pacifier. I personalized the gift by embroidering the child's name on the bib front with orange floss.

In the same manner you can make a handy-woman apron by using the back of the jeans from side seam to side seam. Keep the entire waistband intact and fastened to the top of the jeans back so that your finished 'apron' may be worn. Cut off the bottom of the jeans two to three inches below the pockets in the rear and just below the waistband in the front. Finish all the raw edges with a narrow hem or with single fold bias tape.

Of course jeans may be cut into squares or other shapes and used to make quilt tops. A quilt top pieced together from varied shades of denim blue is very attractive.

Jeans squares may also be used to make bean bags by sewing three sides of two squares together, turning the resulting 'bag' inside out, pressing it, filling it with beans or other filler, and hand sewing the top together. Old denim may also be used to design cloth dolls and doll clothes and make attractive appliques on a sweatshirt.

How would you use the zipper and button closure? Maybe incorporating it into a toddler's fabric explore mat so that the toddler can practice zipping and buttoning.

The cloth pockets from the jeans are always useful for a seamstress making another pair of pants.

Even if your favorite denims seem unusable, plenty of other uses abound for someone with a little imagination, a sewing machine, crochet hook, scissors, and needle and thread.

Learn more about this author, Sandra Petersen.
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