Hello all, and thank you, in advance, for all your help!! Tomorrow is the day I get to start cutting up several year's worth of saving old jeans. It has to happen... I can't lift the tub containing them...

Here's my question... well, do you have any advice? I'm thinking cut the legs off... then waistbands... After that, I'm wondering???

I know I should save some pockets for use in the quilt, but do I save them all? And do I save the waistbands? any other part of the jeans? Any ideas?

Please help?? I can't wait to see what you say :-o

When I did a memory quilt with jeans, I kept the belt loops and leather Lee emblem. I used them for the quilt hanger on the back of the wall hanging.

I don't save the waist bands on mens jeans but do on the all
elastic waist jeans of womens and I also save all zippers and
use a thread ripper to take the zippers out and save.I safe some pockets but not all. Hope this helps you. :D

I just cut off the legs and toss the "shorts" into a box for later..when I know what I want to do with them, then I worry about cutting the parts off!

The jeans quilt I did , I cut the legs off at the crotch, Then opened the cut off legs at the seam, so they would lay flat for cutting. Do note some jeans the pockets are positioned so the bottom is below the crotch, so if you want to save or use the pockets .. just becareful to cut below to give your self seam allowance.
I sorted the large pieces into light fade, med and dark. So I ahd a good idea of what I had for a pattern. I had lots of med not much in dark and light.
I had this idea of making a quilt of just pockets ...

best advice i can give you . . . don't strain your hands! use your rotary cutter as much as you can. those scissors no matter how sharp they are will not help your hands at all.

I used a rotary cutter with a pinking blade, cut the legs off and saved all the tops for later use. then I cut through both layers of the legs, all the way down, to remove the seams

pretty much what everyone has said so far, you can make bags from the daisy dukes too if not too badly damaged with wear and tear

Yes save pockets! Use them for Wall organizers in your Quilt room and in quilts too! 8-) OR I will trade you Fabric for some of them 8-)

I would save some of the pockets you can use them as WALL HANGING and it depends on how you plan to do your quilt

Save pockets! I want to make a quilt outof pockets one day!!

Actually I cut and saved some of the front pockets as they had printing on them. Levi's are a good example.

Thank you, thank you for your quick responses! I hadn't thought of the effects on my hands... I will follow everyone's advice!! Love the idea of using pockets as organizers!! If anyone has a picture of this, please share??

You are the best! Thank you again... now I'm off to my play day!! Wheeeeeee

I tossed the pockets, lol, now I wish I had saved them for a wall hanging!

I've made bags (totes) from the body of the jeans. It's just a matter of sewing it together across the bottom, then you have the legs to do whatever with. Leave the waist band, belt loops, pockets, etc on and you can put a belt on it, decorate the pockets, whatever you want. They sell well at fall craft sales and maybe in summer for beach bags too.

ditto. Some I left plain and some a dropped a lining in. It was a red bandanna type fabric. Made the handles out of the legs, but I've seen some where it looks like they used other waist bands for the handles.

When I made a rag quilt for my son I saved the butt pockets but not the front ones. I did not save the waist band either. When I was cutting my squares out of the legs I did include the seam some. It gave it a lot more character on the squares.

when you cut the legs apart, cut off the flat felled seams. I use them for straps on jeans purses. Also I use the back pockets to make little girl's purses.

Pat

I don't cut them up until I am ready to use them. Some of the patterns use the seams, some use the pockets and surrounding fabric. There are purses that use the whole top of the jeans, including the waistband. I want to get the most use out of them so keep them whole until I know what I want to make.