Let’s Make Denim Yarn!

In recognition of our current Needlework Your Jeans Contest I decided to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

At one point I had lots of old worn out jeans on hand for me to accomplish this. I eventually got rid of them because they were taking up too much space.

Recently we had a big cleaning event in order to switch rooms around. Our thirteen year old daughter now has her own room. You can imagine how excited she is. There were a couple pairs of jeans I was able to get ahold of to do this project.

Have you ever made denim yarn? The process was actually a lot of fun. My kids were even intrigued and waiting to see the results 😁.

Normally I see people make rugs and bags with denim yarn but I’m looking to do something a bit different with it. You’ll have to stick around and check back next week to see what I decide 😜.

I’ll take you through the steps I did so that you too can make some denim yarn.

All you’ll need for this is a good sharp pair of fabric scissors and of course a pair of jeans.

Let’s Go!

First you’ll need to make a cut right below the back pockets in order to maximize the amount of yarn yield.

Next, snip off the entire bottom hem of the leg. This part is too thick to crochet with so we don’t want to keep those.

This is where you decide how thick you want your yarn to be. Some people like to measure to get it perfect but I just eyeballed it along the way. My goal was to have a slightly thinner yarn because I feel it will be easier to work with.

Once you decide your width you begin cutting strips along the length of the entire jean leg. You only cut up far enough to reach two fingers length from the edge of the leg. It’s important not to cut all the way to the top.

Here’s a closeup of what your cuts will look like…

Here’s a shot of the completed full leg of strips…

Pretty cool huh?! 😀

Now it’s time to cut the first strip. You just simply cut from the end and then let it hang.

Turn your work to where you are holding the thick middle part so that you can begin your diagonal cuts. This is where the magic happens.

You’ll cut from the side of one strip over across to the side (right where the slit is) of the next one. You’ll do this down the entire leg.

Before you know it you’ll start seeing a continuous stand of yarn emerging…

Until you finally get to the end of the leg and see a pile of yarn…

That’s it! That’s all there is to it. Repeat with the second leg to add more denim yarn to your inventory 😉.

I enjoyed rolling my yarn into this ball. My five year old wanted to get her hands on it so bad…only to unravel it 🤨😅.

This really was a lot of fun to make.

You can use this same process to make t-shirt and fabric yarn as well. I love working with t-shirt yarn because it’s so soft and pliable. We’ll see how I feel about this denim yarn.

The real question of the day is: