Jeans have been piling up in the last months. I guess being a 5 years old boy is hard on pant knees. I just can’t resign myself to throw them away.

 A few were turned into shorts. I have been looking to do some projects with them. But I realized that they are a bit to small for most projects I have seen using old jeans. It’s a good thing that one of dad’s pair of jeans joined the pile.

I was able to make both of my boys some denim bins following this tutorial by Betz White. These were fun and quick to put together. For the lining of the first one, I used a print from the PB&J collection by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics, which I just love. For the second one, I used  a print from the Mind Your P’s & Q’s collection by Keiki for Moda Fabrics.

I made those bins for them to put their coloring pencils. I did as said in the tutorial and only used batting for the interfacing. It lacks a bit stiffness to hold pencils. I decided to put some old yogurt container inside of it, so it would stay straight up. Well that wasn’t the plan, but it is still nicer than a yogurt container alone and this will protect the fabric.

I also made each of them a bicycle bucket following Anna from Noodle Head’s tutorial. The lining and binding are both prints from the Mod Century collection by Jen Ski for Moda Fabrics.

This project was a bit of a challenge for me. Working with stiff interfacing makes things a lot less maneuverable. Everything went smoothly until I had to put the finishing touch: the binding. I guess things would have been a lot more easier with a sewing machine having a free arm. Just like the one pictured in the tutorial. But mine doesn’t have one. For this reason, I sewed the binding from the interior contrarily to what is done in the tutorial. Also instead of sewing the two ends of the binding together, I made them overlap on about 1 1/2″ with the one on top folded. It is less cleaner, but I was a bit easier this way for me. This isn’t the project I’m the most proud of, but both my boys were happy to ride their bicycles with their new basket!

If you have some suggestions of what I could do from the kids small pair of jeans let me know. Or if you have other upcycling projects with jeans that you want to share, let me know. I’m curious!