I am in the process of cutting up a bunch of jeans (my neighbor brought me tons of jeans from the thrift shop she volunteers at) and I am cutting my squares at 6 1/2" but I think they are going to be a little small after sewing 1/2" around the sides. Maybe the blocks need to be bigger because if the cut size is 5" then you sew around the squares you may have a very small square. I like Quiltedsunshines idea of adding small borders around.