Denim Rug Project Part 3

Nine feet of fabric yielded 16 inches of stitching.

The transition from light to medium fabrics.

There is an old adage that states, "Don't change horses in mid-stream."  It is not always a great idea to make some major change to a project once you get underway.  However, this time I found it necessary, or at least worthwhile to make a big change in the project once I had it started.   Last blog post I wrote about I decided that I really did not like the look of the denim rug that I wanted to make.  It looked nice in the picture, but up close it looked shabby.  It was really not the look I wanted in my room.  So, with lots of lengths of two inch wide (5.08 cm.) denim strips cut, I changed my mind about what I wanted to do with them.  Sometimes it is worthwhile to have a Plan B, and even a Plan C.  I finally hit upon the plan that would give me a look that I liked.  It was actually hard to choose.  There are a number of ways to make a denim rug. 

The transition from medium to darker fabrics.

I have already learned a lot about working with denim.  A couple of things I would like to pass on immediately because not one article I read on denim projects mentioned it.  Lint is a big problem.  It clogged up my sewing machine.  I have quilted for years and I have never had my machine so clogged with lint.  If you are using a sewing machine in your project (more on the machine sewing in the next paragraph) be prepared to clean it out much more frequently than normal.  I was also breathing in abnormal amounts of lint.  It was in my nose and I was feeling stuffy.  With 20-20 hindsight, it might have been advisable to wear a dust mask.

When you cut up denim, it starts to unravel.  Little bits of thread were falling off all over the place.  My floor was covered with thread.  I had to sweep up regularly to keep from tracking it all through the house.  The unraveling threads were enough of a problem that they had to be addressed one way or another.  For the sake of time, I decided to zig-zag stitch around each piece.  My other option was to fold the pieces in half length wise and turn under the open edges and stitch them in place.  I did not choose that option because it would have created a lot of bulk on one side of each tube and more bulk in joining the tubes together. 

Now that the advice part is out of the way, let me tell you about my project.  I have made a lot of progress, but you can hardly tell it.  The entire week I have been zig-zag stitching around pieces of denim.  I think I have fourteen pairs of jeans cut up into two inch (5.08 cm.) strips.  I would sew around one and drop it into a box.  Then the next.  I ended up with a pyramid of fabric about twelve inches by fifteen inches at the base (30.48 x 38.1 cm) and  twenty inches high (50.8 cm).  It seemed an intimidatingly large amount of fabric strips. 

To make it seem like the week had not been a total waste of time, I started joining the strips of fabric together.  Another decision had to be made at this point on joining the pieces of fabric.  I could join the fabric as if I were piecing blocks on a quilt, with edges lined up evenly.  Or, I could piece the fabric as if I were making a bias binding, so that the edges of the join run diagonally across the fabric.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  A straight join is going to add more bulk in one area, which will make some stitches difficult, but it is quicker than making the diagonal join.  The diagonal join means that there is less bulk in one area of the stitch, but it wastes a considerable amount of fabric.  A diagonal join is made by laying one strip across another strip at right angles.  Then the seam is sew from the lower edge of the top fabric up to the opposite corner at the top.  The excess triangle of fabric is then cut away.  I went with the straight join.  I would rather deal with an occasional difficult stitch than lose the fabric.

The combination of the fabrics was another decision.  There are many variations in the colors of denim.  I had asked friends to donate old, blue denim jeans for the project in order to keep the cost of the project down.  I received jeans in many shades of blue.  Some were very light, some very dark, and most of them middle values of blue.   I only had a few dark indigo ones.  I decided to attach the fabric in strips going from light to dark and then starting the sequence over again.  However, because the I have so few of the dark indigo, the indigo will be used in much shorter pieces.  They will be accent points.

I started attaching the fabric in roughly three foot lengths of each color (0.91 meter) .  I say roughly because the fabrics are cut in all different lengths to gain the most fabric from a pair of jeans.  If I started to cut up the fabrics so that each piece was exactly a yard long I would end up with a bunch of little joins eventually.  Close enough is good enough in this case.  Besides, I like to add a bit of randomness to my projects.  You never know how the bits of fabric are going to line up. 

For the record, there is a better way to make strips of fabric than the one I used.  If I had started out with this method it would have been easier.  However, since I changed my mind on how to make the rug, it was not an option for me.  You start at one end on a panel of the leg and start cutting, making turns as you reach each corner, and continuing to cut around the entire panel so that each leg panel is one continuous length of fabric.  (The back panels would be slightly shorter lengths since you have to work around the pockets.)  You would end up with four long lengths of fabric from each pair of pants.  That will save a considerable amount of time and reduce the number of joins needed to make the rug.  However, you will still have to deal with the issue of unraveling threads.  And, those long lengths of fabric are going to tangle into big knots unless you roll them up into balls or onto some type of tube.

After putting about nine feet of fabric together I started testing how well it was going to crochet.  I folded the fabric in half as I crocheted so that the joins of the fabric would be on the inside.  I did not feel the need to sew the outer edges together.  I tried it with a size G hook to get a feel for what the rug might look like.  It is too early in the process to start the crocheting, but I needed the energy boost of seeing what the project might look like.  The size G hook crocheted a length of stitching about sixteen inches (40.64 cm) long from nine feet of fabric (90.91 meter).  This is just an experiment.  The stitches are a little tight.  I need to remember to loosen up.  However, this strand has a very hefty feel to it.  It feels like a rug.  The photos shown here are all made with a G hook.

At this point I have not yet decided on how to proceed with the rug.  I also want to try a size T hook.  The stitches would be larger and the amount of fabric needed to make the rug could go up.  Since I have not tried it yet I would have to guess, but a nine foot length of fabric might only crochet up to a ten inch strand with the T hook.  The rug might not feel as thick since the stitches might flatten out somewhat.  I will have to experiment.  I will let you know.

This is about as far as I have gone on this project so far.  My plan for this week will be to join as many strips together as I can.  I may get a little bit of the crocheting done if I do it in the evenings while watching television.

I will be blogging on another subject next Sunday.  I will be blogging again about the denim rug in two weeks.  Check back for the latest updates.