Forever in Blue Jeans

Pile of old denim clothing

I had been working with vintage linens for a couple of weeks and made a couple of really wonderful pillow covers to sell in my Deb Upcycles shop on Etsy so I decided to do something different a couple of Fridays ago. I have a small cabinet full of old beat up blue jeans and other denim and I decided to play with that all day.

Well, it lasted a lot longer than a day. I started by making "a pillow or two". Cut a few pairs of jeans and then cut a few more until I had a large pile of blue jean parts.



Then I started making stuff, I cut out a bunch of potholders, eye glass cases and lots of pillows. Threaded the sewing machine with heavy duty denim thread and started sewing.

This was the hardest one to make, but I really like it. I think I'll try to make a couple more. I'm waiting for better weather to take pictures of a couple more to list them and four or five more cut out and waiting to be made. I had to stop for a little while to work on a special order from a local shop (more about that in another post). But watch Deb Upcycles on Etsy for more denim items. For some reason that pile in the first picture is growing instead of shrinking. I keep finding more denim as I go through my bins of stuff to upcycle.

About My --------- Upcycled Potholders!

 I thought I'd write a series of posts here about the things I sell in my shop DebUpcycles. Answering questions like... Why they're upcycled, how they're upcycled, what materials I use, and where I get the fabric. I don't have any big trade secrets so here it goes.

I'm going to start with my denim potholders. People, mostly men but some women (including me) wear their jeans until they're falling apart.

 Most thrift shops don't put these out, although I wish they would, so I go to the Goodwill Outlet here where they sell all the items not good enough for the stores by the pound. I also find some at yard sales where they'll either be very cheap or (awesome!) in the "free" box.

I also find scraps of cotton batting, leftovers from some ones quilt project, at various places.



 In the first potholders pictured I used scraps of denim in another shade to make the hearts and outlined them with machine stitching in red so they would stand out. In the picture above, you can see the outline of the stitching on the back of the potholder. For the ones on the left, the apples were cut from scraps I had leftover from making a pillow out of a mans shirt which was also found at the Goodwill Outlet, the leaves were just scraps I had picked up somewhere.
Everything except the thread is upcycled or used up from scraps, if I run out of something like the cotton batting I don't go running to a regular retail store for more. I just make something else until I find it again.

I love the challenge of finding ways to use the things I buy to their fullest extent. Even the scraps that are too small for anything else end up in pincushions or my compost pile as long as they're natural fibers.

Remember, we only have one Earth, it's time to start taking care of it.

A Day on the Road Antiquing

My son is a collector, he has a great interest in old tools and likes to go to antique stores and resale shops looking for great finds. I often tag along to see if I can find any vintage linens and quilts to make things for my Etsy store. I like to look for things that have been stained or torn. This makes them perfect candidates for upcycling. It also makes them cheaper.

Yesterday was my only day off from the "job that pays the bills" it's also Friday. My son calls me in the morning and says he took the day off to spend with me (yeah!) and wanted to know if I wanted to go antiquing. Of course I said yes and we jumped n his car ready for the adventure. We drove out of St Louis and headed towards the Missouri countryside looking for antique malls and shops.

We drove for an hour and a half to the furthest place we wanted to check. We had never been in this direction before so we did a lot of searching on our phones to find the places. We found and explored about 3 antique malls, another antique shop as well as a thrift store, a craft store and a general store in one of the small towns we stopped in. We also had a great lunch in a small place called A Taste of Home Cafe in Steeleville, MO. It was so good I thought I'd give it a plug. If you're ever out that way check them out. We were disappointed that several places we looked for there were closed for the winter. We were both exhausted by the time we got home.

Here's the big haul I made, not a lot but still have some things to work with. Watch Deb Upcycles on Etsy or these pages to see what I do with them. I also bought some fabric for my supply shop, but I already had it bagged up before I thought to take pictures.











My son was also very pleased with the trip he found a wood plane that he didn't have that he said was also a great price. I don't get it, but it makes him happy.

Pretty in Pink, Upcycled Etsy Finds

Vintage Linens becomes an Apron

Buttons become Earrings

Repurposed Fabric for a Pillow!

Pink and Purple Tie Dye Lace Vest

Tyvec and Plastic becomes a Barrette

Wooden Game Piece into Brooch!

My Weekly Thrift Shop Run

 I find my "second chance" craft supplies, fabric and patterns, as well as my clothing and linens to upcycle in all kinds of places. Thrift shops, yard sales, estate sales, auctions, friends and family and more. The thrift shop pictured above, though, is a weekly stop. They have patterns and fabric for sale on a very regular basis. They bag up their fabric, yarn and other craft supplies in large bags and it's often a guessing game as to what is in the bag. I can spend several minutes per bag trying to determine if the bag is worth buying.

They have a system of coding everything by color. After a number of weeks they start reducing the items. I don't wait for the fabric and patterns to be reduced or I would miss out on a lot of good stuff but when I'm looking for items to upcycle, I look for the items that are 75% off for two reasons. One, because it's a lot cheaper and two because it's had awhile to sell and hasn't. These are usually the items that are worn, stained, have buttons missing or other problems and this makes it a prime candidate for upcycling!

And this is the haul for this week, lots of patterns that I'm listing now on Deb's Patterns. A bag of fabric and another bag of buttons that I still have to go through and take pics and list on Deb's Crafts. A couple shirts for pillows or whatever, a beach wrap with messed up fringe and a stained damask tablecloth, all candidates for upcycling, watch Deb Upcycles for the results once I figure out what I'm going to make.

Works in Progress and Other Sad Tales

I have a problem with a pile up of works in progress, it's not that I start a bunch of stuff that I never finish. Everything eventually gets finished. The problem is I start working on more projects than I finish in any given week.

So I made a vow to only work on those projects that were already started. Most of them were gift bags and plain pillow covers from decorator fabric. Those are just so easy to cut, I cut a lot of them.

The problem with this is;
A - I'm easily bored.
B - I keep coming up with new ideas

                                                                                                                

 The pillow cover above was one of those ideas. I finally decided that I needed to work on my ideas before they get stale. I was losing too many of them to trying to finish the "pile" of work. I know everything will eventually get done. I had several of these potholders in the pile

Finished the ones on the right the other day and posted them this morning.

This is actually a pile of  pillow covers I finished yesterday, all they need is to be turned right side out, ironed, put in the insert and take the pics.

So I do get things done, I need to stop "waiting" to start on new ideas and just do them.




What's the other sad news? Well, I need to give Fuuko her medicine and she hates it. Poor kitty.

Happy news is my birthday contest is still on, tell me about your works in progress on this post to be entered and see the contest post for other ways to enter.

Time for My Birthday Contest!

Last year I ran a contest all through the month of August for people to guess which day in August was my birthday. Since the answer is right out there for all to see now I can't exactly do that again.

So I was thinking about doing something a little different this time.

Gift Tie-Ons from Deb Upcycles

The prize will once again be a $20 gift certificate to any of my Etsy shops. I have three, Deb's Crafts for fabric and other sewing and craft supplies, Deb's Patterns for sewing patterns and craft books and of course Deb Upcycles for my handmade, upcycled crafts. If I get over 58 people entering (not 58 entries because there will be multiple ways to enter, but 58 different people) I will give away another $10 gift certificate.

Ways to enter will be changing through the month so keep coming back to see what you can do next for more entries:

Leave a separate comment in the comment section for each entry.

1 entry: Why 58 you say? I think it's pretty easy to figure out, so why don't we make that the first way to enter, just comment on the blog and tell me why 58. Just one "guess" per person.

5 entries: Blog about the contest of course!

1 entry per day:  Tweet about this contest: One tweet per day per person unless I change this, use #debupcycles.

Up to 3 entries:  Pin any item from Deb Upcycles to your Pinterest boards, leave the link to the pin in the comments.

2 Entries for the sewers (and even if you don't sew) What pattern from Deb's Patterns would you like to make for someone and who? Post the link to the pattern in comments.

Horatio the blind kitty may help me pick the winner, but then I might use a random number generator. I'm not sure yet.

Contest ends August 31, 2013 at midnight Central Time.

Upcycling Men's Shirts

Let's face it, except for Hawaiian shirts, (which make great pillow covers) and the ilk, mens' shirts can be pretty boring. I have a bunch of them and need to do something with them. Most of them are missing buttons or stained, pretty much unusable as shirts. I had bought them at a thrift shop steeply discounted, even by thrift shop terms, because nobody was buying them

 I was (and am still considering it) going to try to make a skirt out of a bunch of coordinated shirts. Then the idea struck me that I could use some of the scraps to make my Christmas Gift Tie-ons in the shape of a tree.  That wasn't going to use up very much and then it hit me. (It hurt, too).








I could cut out tree shapes and applique them onto the front and backs of other shirts and make these great looking pillow covers. They're not just for Christmas either, they can be used year round if you want!










I have a ton of other ideas, too. I'm working on some fish swimming across the pillow, flowers (I have one with tulips cut out) other tree "styles" and more. I'm also thinking of making some gift bags like these so I can use up some of the smaller pieces.

What else can I do with these shirts? What other applique shapes should I try? What else can I applique trees on? Leave comments below if you have any ideas!

Birthday Contest Winners

The winner of the $20 Gift Certificate is Tab, who would pick the Christmas Ornaments and Christmas stars if she won. (She can change her mind if she wants to.

My birthday is August 20th and two people guessed that, I tossed a coin and the winner is ambre.

It's My Birthday and I'll Have a Contest if I Want To

August is my Birthday Month but I'm not telling you the day, that's going to be part of the contest. I'm going to make it an easy contest, lots of ways to enter because I really need to get my Deb Upcycles shop off the ground. The prizes are going to be a $20 and a $10 Gift Certificate to the shop. Twenty dollars will buy just about anything in my shop. So the first entry for the $20 you will receive is when you tell me what item in my shop you would get if you won. Just post a comment in the comment section.

Do you tweet? Follow me on twitter, https://twitter.com/DebUpcycles. Make sure you leave a comment  telling me you did and a way to identify your twitter. Or would you rather just Tweet? You can get up to 3 entries for tweeting this post, my shop or anything in my shop. Use #debupcycles so I can find it and leave a comment here to tell me about it..


Follow this blog and leave a comment that you did so. That one's pretty easy isn't it?

How about Pinterest? Follow me at http://pinterest.com/debupcycles/ for one entry (I'll even follow you back). Then pin up to three of my items for extra entries. Again, just leave me a comment and your pinterest name so I can verify it.

All verified entries will go into a hat at on Sept. 1st for a drawing. Winner will be notified, please leave a way to reach you. If the prize isn't claimed within 72 hours of notification another drawing will be held.

And that's it.... Wait a minute I never told you how to win the $10. That ones easy, for every entry you have for the $20 you get to guess what day in August I was born. If nobody guesses the exact day I get to keep the $10. If more than one person gets it right, there will be a drawing to determine the winner. We'll forget about what year, I don't even want to think about that.

Fabric Samples Galore

  

The Upcycle Exchange was given what was described as a "truckload" of fabric samples. They posted it on Face Book and I dropped everything and ran over there. This is only part of what I came home with. There's very large pieces and also small ones, everything from cotton/polyester blends to handwoven silk. Lots of colors, textures, designs, patterns and more.

 

Of course I can make more pillow covers, some of them are going to make great pillows but the pattern on some just don't lend themselves to good pillows, either the pattern is too large, small or intricate. I've made one pillow so far, it's on the right. I have about 8 more of that type of fabric sample. A couple more in blue and then in purple and green. Many of the samples I have two or three pieces that are the same making it easier to piece out pillows.

There's also some pieces that are too small for pillows that I want to make drawstring bags of one type or the other. I've made a couple project bags so far and am intending on making more. Still working out how the best way to do it.  But I still need ideas. There's an awful lot of fabric here that I need to use up.

OMG I Had to Pay Retail.....

I had to go to Hobby Lobby yesterday for some things I've been unable to find at thrift stores. The only reason I choose Hobby Lobby is that it was the closest to where I live.I hate shopping at regular stores (except maybe for groceries) but sometimes it's necessary. I keep giving away my pillows to friends and when I do I give them the inserts, so one of the main things I needed was pillow inserts. I got two new sizes to add to my collection at Debupcycles.

Just as a side note, I loved what it said on the side of the bag about recycling it. The only problem I could see was one of the suggestions on this huge bag that held a bunch of pillow inserts. Do you see it? They must be packing a lunch for a whole class of first graders or something.

One of the other things I needed was cording to make some small project and tote bags. I bought a huge stack of fabric samples at The Upcycle Exchange the other day and they are too nice just to use for gift bags and many are too small for pillows. I've been looking all over for cords to use in the bags and although I found a few things, I really had to break down and buy it new so I could make more than one or two at a time. I've only made two, the first one I'm keeping, the second one is to the left. I'll be adding them to my store as they get made.

I had a couple stained Christmas tablecloths I was planning on making something out of and yesterday I finally got moving on them, I think they came out beautiful! You can find them and other Christmas pillows in my shop.

Today I'm at work and brought a bunch of Hawaiian shirts with me to cut up. That sounds like a good project! Watch for the Hawaiian pillows in my shop soon.

From Old Curtains Come...

I was strolling through the thrift shop one day, in the merry, merry month of May, or was it March? Anyway I was taken by surprise by some very colorful curtains.

 The colors just screamed 70's to me although I had no idea how old they actually were. I swear I had sheets with this or a very similar print when I was a teen.

Anyway, visions of pillow covers and other things danced in my head and I decided to spend the outrageous price they were asking for them (I think they were $1 per panel, so $3). I put them away and forgot about them.

Yesterday I was looking for some Hawaiian shirts for some pillow covers I knew I had (Coming Soon!) and found them again. So this morning I cut them. I was even able to use the side seams for the envelope closure in the back. I sewed them up this afternoon and am so pleased with the results. The set made two 16" pillow covers and three 14" pillow covers with a nice piece that was too small leftover, to do something else with.

If you think you could give them a good home, they can be found in my shop at Deb Upcycles.

16" Pillow

14" Pillow

My Garden and Shops

Wow, I've got to start taking this blogging seriously again. Have a lot to say, lot of different things going on. I have a great garden this year, my new landlord actually built me a couple raised beds for it. I've been out watering it everyday because of the heat, not real efficient on the water conservation but I haven't had to buy many fresh veggies lately. What I do buy is bought at our Farmers Market. It's a little bit more expensive but it's local and organic. The money I've saved growing my own, covers the extra expense.

I've also been working hard on my Deb Upcycles Shop on Etsy. Made some more gift bags and a few more pillow covers. I'm working towards the day I no longer have to have a day job. I don't know if it will work but I'd love to try

I've added a lot more to my other two shops, Deb's Crafts and Deb's Patterns. Both of them are stocked with sewing and craft supplies I've saved from thrift shops and yard sales.

Cleaning Out the Craft Room

I wish I had taken before pictures but I'm not even done and it still looks pretty bad. LOL I spent all of Tuesday sorting out all the stuff I had. I found a ton of things I was going to make pillow covers out of and I guess I need to start cutting them out and sewing them together for my Deb Upcycles shop. I also found a lot of fabric and lace that I'm already listing on Deb's Crafts.

I have three bags of fabric scraps and other items to go to The Upcycle Exchange here in St Louis and another couple bags that need to go to Leftovers, which is a 30 minute drive but I try to get there on a regular basis. As well as all that, I have a bagful of stuff to go to the thrift shop across the street. I don't like to see anything go to waste.

I still have an outrageous amount of patterns that I need to list on Deb's Patterns but I am slowly whittling away the pile.

Busy, busy week.

Patterns, Patterns Everywhere

I made the plunge and decided to open up a new Etsy shop just for patterns. I had so many on the Debs Crafts site that they overwhelmed everything else and I wasn't able to sort them into sections. My new shop is called Debs Patterns (what else?) and I'm in the long slow process of transferring all the patterns from one shop to the other. On top of that I have bags full of patterns waiting to be listed!

I already have about 200 patterns there and have many, many more to list. I've enlisted the aid of my college kid to type up the descriptions. This really saves time as I'm a rather slow typist, at least compared to him. Kids these days grew up with computers and his fingers just fly across the keyboard.  (yes, he has cut his hair since that pic was taken)

On top of all that I need to start working on my Deb Upcycles shop, too. I have stuff to list and half made items. I'm hoping for some great sales for the gift bags but I need to get them finished and listed. Got to start getting ready for Christmas shopping.