Jean Quilt Tutorial

My husband and children love quilts!  Especially homemade ones!  So for Christmas this past year I made my husband a "Levi Blanket" out of old jeans that we wore out over the years.

I started out cutting my jeans into strips.  I cut them into 4, 5 and 6 inch strips, it all depended on how small my jeans were that I was cutting.  To me, this is the most time consuming part.

  I sewed the strips into rows.  Then go a head and place the rows into the order you want them to be sewn into.  I was planning on using a flannel sheet that I picked up on clearance a few years ago that we never used.  So I laid the sheet down and then laid the rows of jeans on top of that so I would have the right size of top.  Once you have your rows laid out in the order you want them to be in, start sewing them together to make your jean top.

Now on to the pictures...

Lay your sheet on your frame.  It's best to have help and it's more fun too!

Clamp your frame together and put on stands. 

You know how much I love yard sales!  Well, I picked up a huge roll of batting at a yard sale for $1!  Actually my husband found it and bought it asking if I could make him a jean quilt with it...

Lay out your batting and smooth out any wrinkles.

Now put the jean blanket on top and pull tight. Clamp the corners and use pins along the sides to hold down the all the pieces of the quilt.

Now time for the fun part!  Tying the quilt.  We wanted to put our ties right down the center of each strip that I sewed.  We used 3x5 inch cards to space out the ties along the strips.

With a few people working, you can really crank a quilt out fast!  As you finish rows, roll the sides up and then reclamp the corners.  This way you can tie the middle of the quilt.

Once it is all tied, all that's left is finishing up the edges.  There are different ways to bind a quilt.  I did it the easiest and quickest way I knew how to do before my husband came home!  I trimmed the all the layers down, but left the flannel sheet about 2 inches longer than the rest.  Then I folded the flannel over the jean part and sewed.

Now we have one heavy, but warm, jean quilt!

Questions:  How do you do the edges?
I don't do anything to the edges.  I have made many jean blankets and haven't had any problems with the edges.  I just sew them together using a straight stitch.

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