How to use old jeans as Valentine decor

Do you have an old pair of jeans or a jean shirt that you are getting rid of? I have a jean shirt that I was going to get rid of. As I was holding it, I had an idea - why not make something for Valentine's Day using it.

I decided to use jean material to make a Valentine garland.  I used a shirt but you could use old jeans as well.

Here's how I made the Valentine garland from an old jean shirt:
1. Get an old shirt or pair of jeans. 

2. I used a cookie cutter as a pattern for my heart shape.

3. I cut out lots of hearts. You can cut out as many as you want.

4. I decided to create two kinds of hearts - one with buttons and one with an arrow.

 
a. Heart with buttons 
For this heart, I used red embroidery thread, but you can use regular thread. I outlined the edge of the heart with a chain stitch.

I sewed on vintage buttons. In some cases I used two buttons while on others I used just one.

 b. Heart with arrow
For this heart, I used a back stitch to make a line. Then I used the back stitch to make the top and bottom parts of the arrow.

5. Once I had created all of my hearts, I felt that they needed some additional stiffness. I had some card stock, so I used my heart to cut out the heart shapes. One for each jean heart.

6. You may have to trim the card stock so it is slightly smaller than the jean heart. I added glue to the outside edges of the card stock heart.

Place the jean heart on top and smooth it out.

Back of jean heart with card stock attached.

7. Once all of the hearts had been glued, I used a hole punch to make holes in the top of each heart. It was a little tough to get the whole punch throw the material and card stock, but I was able to get the holes punched.



8. Once all of the holes had been punched, I threaded them onto some twine. 

 
I was thrilled that instead of discarding my old jean shirt, I was able to create this cute Valentine's Day garland. I love to reuse and recycle. 

The post  How to use old jeans as Valentine decor first appeared on Eclectic Red Barn.

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