Recycled Denim Throw

Good news! I'm back online with my fingers crossed until Friday when the permanent Internet line is put in. I still don't have a phone, but I have Internet - Yeah!





I put this throw together a couple of years ago and included it in my Procrastinators Challenge in January, but didn't finish it. Let me tell you a little about the throw and my inspiration. Our middle child, 1st boy, was extremely hard on the knees of his blue jeans. It was always the same story, first the right knee would blow out and then the left. When he was little he loved Thomas the Tank engine and has a ton of Thomas track/buildings/engines. He would spend hours playing on the living room floor with layouts that his Dad would design for him every night - he'd wake up to a new track most days compliments of Dad. I really think Dad had just as much fun as Matthew! DH would spend an hour on a complicated track layout, which I never understood, because Matthew would play with it as is for a while and then make "upgrades" to the layout. All that crawling around was hard on the knees! Whenever I would see another hole I always said a prayer of thanksgiving that I have healthy children who are able to put holes in their jeans. I digress, back to the throw...I cut squares from the jeans that I'd saved from when he was little, sewed them wrong sides together and then sewed the strips together. By sewing them together wrong sides together, the seams will fray in time and look more worn. I decided on a few of the squares to add embellishments - a back pocket, a knee patch with a hole

And a label from another pair. Some of the squares I cut so the leg seam is centered down the square, anything little to add a little "flair" to a boys' blanket.

On this photo you can see the back material - a navy blue flannel. I did not use any batting, with the flannel and the denim it is SO heavy. I thought it would be too hot with a batting, not to mention the weight of the thing. I had planned on putting it together one way and bought enough material to put an edging strip on the front and then sew it to the back, turn it right side out and tie with yarn. I waited until my Mom was here last weekend - do you ever run across a project where you need your Mom? I just needed to talk this over with someone else with sewing experience and wanted her here for moral support! We decided to forgo the border strip and I simply sewed the front to the back with the wrong sides together so the edge can fray like the squares. I did tie every other row with a cotton yarn that was variegated to match all the blues in the throw.

Thanks to Mom for her help, I finally have this item off the list of things to do. Now I'm just waiting for boy #2 to ask where his is!

~Ann