The Denim Project

My pile of denim strips.

I started working on my denim project, or projects as the case might be.  Some time ago, I saw a rug made out of denim strips in a magazine.  I wanted a small runner to put on the side of my bed.  It is cold stepping out of the bed onto the floor in the winter.  I thought that this might be a small rug project that I could undertake. 

Initially I had started with the idea of making a larger rug like the one I had seen in a magazine.  But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to be a lot of work.  Trying to sew a large rug is going to be heavy.  Since it was only a picture of the finished project, I really have no way of knowing how that particular rug was put together.  I am guessing that it is made in strips that are then attached to each other.  

It may be that a heavy duty industrial sewing machine is needed for this project.  I am hoping that my home sewing machine will be up to it.  My main concern is that a heavy rug would create too much drag and the fabric will not move well through the feed dogs.  My sewing machine is old, but still working well.  I expect it will work well with heavier needles used for denim projects.   Perhaps a walking foot is in order here as well.  As usual, this is one of my experiments.  I will find out what works and what does not. 

Before I could begin the rug, I had to have a lot of scrap denim.  I put out a call to friends for old denim.  I received several pairs of jeans.  I also had some of my own old jeans to add to the pile.  While it is nowhere near the amount of denim needed for the larger project, it is a good start.  I have been cutting them up for the last week.  I did not specify the color of denim, other that to say that I wanted blue denim.  I did not want to add black or other colors into the mix.  I received every shade of blue; from blues so pale that they were almost white to deepest indigo.  Most of the blues fell in the range of light stone wash to medium stone wash.  Although it might be nicer to stick to one color of denim, I am going ahead with using all colors. 

This week, I have been working on cutting the denim pants into two inch strips the length of the pants.  Some strips are longer than others due to the curves and seams in the pants.  At this point I have not decided whether to further cut the strips into a standard length or just leave them random lengths.  I am thinking random lengths would be better because I don't want all the ends of the pieces matching up.

Next step is to overcome the nay sayers.  I told the women at my sit and sew about my project and one woman told me that she had a friend who made a denim rug and said she would never do it again.  I mentally fended that one off by saying to myself that this sounds like every project I have ever undertaken.  Then my husband inquired about my denim project.  After I explained that it was a rug, he said, "If you want a rug why don't you go out and buy one?"  His logic was harder to refute.  I started thinking, "Do I really want to do this project?"  What might I do with all this denim instead?"  

Anyway, at this point, I have a grocery bag full of denim strips.  I plan to start working with those and see where it takes me.   If it is too onerous I might change up the way I made the rug.  Or if making a rug proves too difficult, the strips may end up as a bed spread, totes, or some other project.  But, I am going to give the rug a shot first.  At worst, I can always pull out a seam ripper and take it apart if I need to retrieve the strips.

Check back next week on Sunday to see what progress has been made on this project.