Perhaps in going through your fall clothes you have found some jeans you no longer want to keep. Instead of donating or tossing them, perhaps you can re-purpose the sturdy denim fabric into something else useful.
There are so many great uses for old blue jeans, and these upcycled blue jean kitchen towels are one of them. Sturdy and absorbent these are been great for both hand towels and dish towels.
I think these could even make great gift for a college student or young working adult starting out on their own for the first time!
DIY Upcycled Blue Jean Kitchen Towels
- Old blue jeans or other denim clothing (I used a bunch of different blue jeans in a variety of weights and sizes for these towels. I also like the look of the flat felled sea
ms, so is doesn't bother me at all to have them in the middle of my towels, but if you didn't want seams you could reuse denim skirts or something else with more seam-free material.) - Coordinating thread
- Scissors
- Sewing machine, preferably with a sturdy jean needle
- Cut the denim into a square or rectangle in the size you desire, adding 1 inch around the entire perimeter for the hem allowance. I basically used the entire width of whatever jean legs I had and made rectangles. I had smaller size jean legs that I made smaller (and closer to a square like shape) towels for drying our hands, and larger jean legs that I made large rectangular dish towels out of. I also chose to use lighter weight denim for the dish towels and heavier weight denim for the hand towels, and I'm happy with all of these choices, but of course choose what is best for you out of what you have to work with. Cut a 4 by 6 inch piece to use for a loop for hanging the towel.
- Fold the edges of the 4 by 6 inch piece in 1 inch and then in half to make a 1 by 6 inch strip with finished long sides. You can iron the strip before you sew if you like. I don't in part because I don't have an iron, and mostly because I hate ironing.
- Now you want to sew a double rolled seam around the perimeter of your towel, inserting each of the ends of the strip a couple inches from the edge of one corner. You may want to clip small squares out of the corners and some of the seam allowance out of the flat felled seams where you will be sewing over them to reduce the bulk and make it easier for your machine to sew over them. Just make sure not to clip to far and end up with a fraying hem. Again you can iron ahead of time if you like.
- After you round the last corner and back tack, simply clip any loose threads and your ready to enjoy your towels!
I'm loving having a whole new set of coordinating kitchen towels that go great in our blue and white kitchen. :)