Recycling jeans

I have two kids that are hard on their pants. Seems like their pants always have holes in the knees. I think Mr. T. wore out 5 pairs of pants in about two weeks. Thank goodness I buy pants on sale, and for the gift of hand-me-downs!

I have had a growing pile of pants to convert into shorts for sometime. I recently decided to tackle it. So I cut off all the legs and then thought they were too good to throw away. Blame it on all the fun crafting blogs I have been viewing lately. I just could not bring myself to dump them.

I did some googling for ideas. I found a few cute ideas, but still not exactly what I wanted. I have recently discovered my best thinking time is in the middle of the night when nursing a baby. With two nursing infants I have a lot of great thinking time! Its great really, its quiet and completely dark, so I have no distractions. Anyhow, I digress. I thought they pant legs could make some very cute hair bows for my daughter. So the next day I did some more googling (while nursing, since its hard to much else while breastfeeding, and it just forces me to take a minute for myself). I looked on etsy as well for inspiration, and really, what I found was not that cute. I then remembered making hair bows with my sister as a kid. We used fabric scraps and hot glue. It was easy and fun. So I went out on my own and tried a few things. I hot glued each bow on an alligator clip.

Here is my first attempt.

I thought it would be cute to use the seams in bows, but decided after that it wasn't. The bow is too big, and I don't like the big loopy holes.




Attempt #2
I decided to start with a rectangle and hot glue each edge. Then I pinched the middle and used a skinny scrap to wrap around the middle.
This bow looks more finished, but also quite plain. At least the size is better.



Attempt #3 (now we are getting somewhere)

I started with a rectangle, 2x5 inches.

I frayed along the long side by pulling threads.

Then I folded over one end, and put glue along it and folded the opposite edge to meet it.



(I found you do not want the glued part exactly in the middle, or it does not pinch off as well, hence why it is off to the side.)

Pinch the middle

I then used the cuff from the pants (I did cut off some of the really frayed strings)

I used the cuff to cinch the pinched middle.


Then I made another to "match". Notice they aren't really the same size/shape, but when in the hair, you cannot really tell. It's times like these that its a very good thing I am not a perfectionist!


I then decided that the cuffs themselves could make for some very cute bows. These were super simple to make. I did not line the alligator clip. I just hot glued the cuff right on, just slightly bigger than the clip itself. Because the clip is not lined, I did stick a small scrap between the metal to keep them from sticking to each other. What good is a clip that you cannot open.



Then added a little embellishment.

I love the frayed look to them. I think all of the bows look very 1980's, so its a good thing that look is coming back in.



The longer I kept at it, the more ideas came to me.

Back to this step,

I added an X of ribbon (hot glued where the ribbons meet)
And hot glued it onto the bow
Then add your cincher to hold the pinch. You can use either the cuff, or a scrap. And of course it needs just a little more to pretty it up...







Add a little more color,

and for Miss B, a little glam!


I got lucky that day, the twins were super sleepy (because of a cold, not so lucky there) and contented enough to let me create. Then Grandma was visiting from out of state, so she was more than happy to hold one of the boys while my sister-in-law and I went to "work" (Hard to call work when you are having so much fun!)

I was able to get all the bows pictured here (and 4 more for my little niece Miss M) done in one day. Even more impressive, I got 8 denim bows made, and 8 cuff clips done from one pair of 4t cut off pant legs! Not too shabby!


I obviously did a few bows besides the denim ones. Miss B. needed some St. Paddy's clips. And a while ago I saw some cute pom-pom caterpillar clips somewhere, and knew my daughter needed some of those as well.

These are just too fun! I used silk leaves from silk flowers I previously pulled apart for flower bows. Hot glued the leaves onto the alligator clips, and then hot glued the pom-poms on, added some tiny googly eyes, and pipe cleaner antennas. I am so ready for Spring!!!