How To Make A Braided Trivet: Blue jean Upcycle

My favorite pair of jeans ripped the other day. To be fair, I’ve worn them almost constantly since picking them up for a dollar at a thrift store, so it’s not like they owed me anything.

Anyway, this project came up because of a friend whose mother gave me a homemade trivet years and years ago and it’s been the best thing ever.

I wanted to make another one (or two), and that’s when I remembered the jeans. At first I thought I’d crotchet it with a big hook, but hat turned of to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Maybe I’ll cut the other leg into thinner strips and try again.

Here’s the thing: why throw something away when you can turn (or upcycle) it into another perfectly good thing?

In this case, instead of adding trash to an already massive landfill, we’ve created something useful, and kind of cool out of an old pair of jeans.

If you’ve ever thought about making a braided rag-rug, but wanted to start with something a little smaller, this is perfect! I think you’ll find that it’s easier than you expect it to be.

Braided Blue Jean Trivet

Materials needed:

• Denim blue jeans
• Sturdy sewing thread
• Sewing needle
• Scissors

1. To make the strips, cut the hem off of the bottom of your jeans. Next, make a vertical cut just long enough for you to firmly grab either side. Rip it all the way up to the waste or until a pocket gets in the way. Repeat at approximately one inch intervals.
   
2. Next, clean off the frayed threads so that your strips look nice and clean
   
3. Tie three strips together and begin braiding.
4. As you get close to the end, tack a new strip on with your sewing thread. It doesn’t have to be Super Man strong, it just needs to keep the strip in place while you’re working on it.
5. This part will go really fast, and you’ll have a whole pant leg braided up in no time.
6. Once you do, tie the three ends together with your sewing thread.
7. Now comes the tricky part. Lay your braid down flat, and coil a few inches.
8. Knot one end of your thread.
   
9. See how the needle is piercing through the touching edges? You’ll want to do that twice in the same place on your first stitch.
10. Then move down half an inch and poke your needle through both inner edges again, but before you pull your thread tight, run your needle through the loop to make a catch stitch.
11. Tighten up the thread, move down half an inch, and repeat.
12. Make sure you’re sewing on the underside of your trivet. If you use matching thread, it won’t be as noticeable as mine, but you still want pretty side up.
13. Keep on coiling and sewing until your trivet reaches the desired size. I used an entire pant leg on mine – which means that one pair of jeans should make two trivets.

It took me about an hour to finish sewing.

When you reach the end, tie of your thread, cut it, and voila! project finished!

I love these projects that I can tackle in one afternoon!

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