To some, it may appear as if I have an endless supply of denim for my crafting. In reality, however, I’m just a scrap hoarder, determined to use every viable part of a pair jeans, before releasing the remnants back into the wild (i.e. my compost pile).

I found an old blank book tucked amid some family memorabilia. It looks like it was someone’s journal at one point; several pages have been torn out and the rest is yellowed with age. It qualified as too-good-to-throw-out-but-nothing-I’ll-regret-messing-up, so, I tried my hand at covering it.

I cut a piece of denim slightly larger than the book’s cover, made 1/4-inch snips all on all four sides, then washed and dried it, to fray the edges. Before attaching it, I used a small ink pad to mask any parts of the pea green cover that might show. Then I used a glue gun to attach the denim.

 

 

 

 

The inside of the cover was a bit ragged, so I pasted a piece of printed cardstock inside the front and back of the book and that helped. The outside looked woefully plain, so I added a pocket, just deep enough to hold a pen.

The finished product looks pretty good, but the best part is how it feels – soft, well-worn denim.

Next, I managed to find a few reusable shopping bags that didn’t get the denim treatment the last time around. Because I’m out of large sections of denim, I decided to try piecing remnants together, using strips and squares, and covering odd seams with pockets.

I think I like these better than the ones I made before. Denim is definitely giving Mod Podge a run for its money in my “most used craft supply” category.

P.S. I’ve given up trying to sew these and now just use a glue gun to attach the denim to the bag. The bond is remarkably strong, I think because the heat from the glue melts the outside of the bag a little, too, so they meld together. I’ll let you know if the glue ever lets me down, but after several months of schlepping groceries in and out of a hot car, there’s no sign it will.