Straw Into Gold–or, turning old jeans into a new denim vest

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I wrote this in April 2025, after having made the vest in January 2025. I meant to add more rhinestones and take new photos, but since that never happened, here’s the post.

One of the greatest delights of sewing, or indeed of crafts in general, is turning rubbish into something wonderful. I tend to save the usable parts of worn-out clothing, and I had accumulated a small pile of heavy denim from jeans that my husband had worn out. The pile had been sitting there waiting for a use to suggest itself, when I decided I really wanted to make something.

But what should I make?

Sometimes I start projects because I need a particular item–say, a pair of pants. Other times, I just want to make something and the material suggests the project. In this case, I was thinking about the denim and how people seem to love denim jackets. I’ve never had one. I’ve never even coveted one particularly. But the more I thought about the pile of denim scraps, the more I thought, “Maybe I should have a denim jacket!” And not any denim jacket, but one with rhinestones, because I just happened to have a Quickfix crystal applicator and a batch of crystals that were also in need of a project.

I browsed the internet looking for a suitable pattern (which was fun in itself) and settled on the Hampton Jacket. I bought a digital copy and had it printed at Staples to save myself the step of having to tape together a lot of sheets of paper.

When I laid out all my scraps, I realized that what with all the different bits and pieces to the pattern, maybe I didn’t actually have quite enough denim after all. The first things to go were the patch pockets. They were decorative, but I thought I might want to simplify a bit so the project wouldn’t take as long. Then I decided that using a different, lighter fabric for the inner pieces of the welt pockets might be a good idea, as it would reduce bulk. Even with those changes, though, I probably didn’t have quite enough denim.

But you know what? A denim vest is almost as cool as a denim jacket! Maybe even more so. And leaving out the sleeves also meant I wouldn’t have to attempt a flat-felled seam on a long tube of material, something I really wasn’t looking forward to anyway. So denim vest it would be!

Sewing the heavy denim actually went much better than I expected until I reached the buttonholes.There were supposed to be metal jeans buttons on the front, and buttonholes to match. I didn’t have the special jeans buttons and thought I might just use regular buttons (in retrospect, I realize there’s a good reason for jeans buttons when dealing with heavy denim), but I couldn’t sew the buttonholes. There was too much bulky seam and my sewing machine doesn’t deal well with unevenness when making buttonholes.

Hmm, what to do…

The other nice thing about having sewing skills is being able to change plans when needed. So, I couldn’t manage buttons. Maybe I could still find a way to sew a zipper onto the opening. It wasn’t a great solution, given the way the placket was designed, but I managed to add one. The zipper looks a bit odd, since there’s a loose flap over it, but the vest probably closes more easily than it would have if I’d had to fasten six or seven buttons. If I make this vest again in a different fabric, I think I might just find a way to substitute a zipper for the buttons anyhow.

The vest was done–almost! It still needed that final touch. I applied a lot of rhinestones–actually, it doesn’t look like a lot, but they took more time than I expected. I did have fun choosing some light blue, some dark blue, a few pink, and a whole lot of clear crystals. Being able to add crystals was one of the key reasons for this project, so I didn’t want to skimp.

How did it turn out?

Well, I was very pleased with how tidy the flat-felled seams looked and the overall design of the vest. It’s a bit long on me, I think, which I didn’t expect, and it feels oddly like armor. (Yes, that denim is heavy.) And of course the flap over the zipper is a bit strange.

Still, it’s made of honest-to-goodness pre-worn, genuinely broken-in denim! And the only thing I had to buy (besides the pattern, admittedly) was the zipper!

You don’t see my face in this photo, but I am smiling smugly.

Till next post.

Bathing With Dragons—repurposing a flannel sheet

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Recently I went through the stuffed linen closet with the goal of getting rid of extra sheets and towels. In particular, I needed to inventory the flannel sheets, which had multiplied for the simple reason that flannel sheets gradually go bald with use and then we end up getting a new set.

However, the top sheets—the flat sheets—take much longer to go bald than the fitted bottom sheets. So while I had several fitted sheets that were worn enough that I didn’t want to give them to the thrift shop, the matching flat sheets were still pretty nice.

Having a big piece of still-usable fabric sets me thinking about what I can make out of it. Flannel—I don’t want flannel pajamas, because flannel pajamas plus flannel sheets equals difficulty turning around in bed. Flannel pajama pant bottoms? I know people are wearing them, but to me they look like someone didn’t bother to get dressed yet.

A bathrobe! I have three bathrobes already, but I could use a lightweight summer robe. Plus, it wouldn’t be too complicated. I was going to use the sheet with the multicolored sheep, but the sheep were scattered too far apart for the best effect. Instead, I would use the sheet with the dragons.

After browsing some of the simple patterns available that were made mostly of rectangles, I decided that as long as I was going to sew a robe, I might as well make one with more shaping. I chose the Arbutus robe from Helen’s Closet. I downloaded the file, decided on size 8, and printed out the I-forget-how-many pages of pattern.

In future, for any pattern with large pieces, I think I will have it printed at Staples on big sheets and then transfer it to pattern material. I hate piecing together all those pages, even with the nifty Scotch tape runner adhesive that let me quickly overlap and stick sheets together faster than regular tape.

Then I needed to adjust the length. Oddly, after a section on lengthening/shortening, the pattern had a heading “How much should I add/remove?” in which it said “Generally, you want to add/remove the difference between your height and the height for which the pattern was drafted divided by two.” I puzzled over this—surely I should just shorten it by the difference?—and unfortunately decided that maybe I was missing some subtlety and went ahead and did as instructed. It was only after I was halfway through sewing and draped the robe over my shoulders that I discovered I could barely touch the pockets and it was ankle-length. On puzzling some more, I noticed that the section in question was next to a picture of the sleeves, which also needed shortening, but not as much as the body. Of course!

I do think the pattern should have been more clearly worded in that section, but I should also have had the basic sense to realize that I needed to shorten it the full five inches difference. D’oh!

So I had to unpick and re-place the pockets, and unpick the facing so I could cut 2.5 inches off the bottom. At least I discovered it in time to fix.

That wasn’t my only mistake, but the others were basic stuff like putting the wrong sides together before sewing. The shawl collar was particularly confusing for me, but in the end it worked out.

I also dislike the interfacing I used. It was pellon sheer-weight, and I thought it would be light enough, but it came out feeling very stiff compared to the very limp feel of uninterfaced flannel sheet. Next time, I’ll test the combination of fabric and interfacing ahead of time.

I took notes as I went, so if I sew another bathrobe, or use the pattern for some other purpose (there is a jacket version), I will hopefully not make the same mistakes. And I’ll know to make the sleeves even shorter than difference/two, so I don’t have to roll up the cuffs.

Here is the finished bathrobe. I like the dragons!

Till next post.

Why I Like the November Postcard Swap

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It’s November! Every November for the last… hmm…more than fifteen years, I’ve taken part in National Novel Writing Month. I’ve started November with an idea, and attempted to write a 50,000 word rough draft of a story before December 1st. Sometimes I’ve even succeeded.

The NaNoWriMo website is no more, sadly. I signed up for the Novel November website sponsored by Pro Writing Aid, but I don’t like their dashboard or much else about their version. But none of this is really relevant to my post, which is about swapping postcards with other writers who are also writing in November. I have participated in that swap for… I really don’t know, but I’m sure it’s been at least five years.

Why do I like swapping postcards with other writers? Getting a postcard in the mail is like getting a little surprise package. There’s a picture on one side, and a message on the other, and no knowing what either will be like. I’ve gotten antique postcards, travel postcards, art postcards. I’ve gotten a postcard of people lounging aboard a ship, a postcard of paths diverging in a park, and a postcard of a cat riding a unicorn.

A sample of postcards I’ve received

And then there’s the message. There isn’t much space on a postcard. Since we’re all writing madly, or hoping to, there’s usually something about writing. I find I’m very curious about other people’s writing projects. So many ideas, so much potential. Sometimes there’s something about why they chose that year’s story idea, which is also fascinating.

Often we send each other encouragement. “Just keep putting down words! The ideas will come.” Maybe we’re both writing mysteries, or fantasy YA, or something middle-grade. When I can, I like to choose my postcards based on whatever the writer said about their project in their sign-up info, hoping that the card may be extra inspiring that way.

Another thing I enjoy about postcards, strange as it sounds, is seeing people’s actual handwriting. How do they write–big or small, cursive or print, in colored ink or plain black? It reminds me that there’s a real person at the other end of the swap, who sat down to write me this message. Sometimes people add stickers, or washi tape, for extra decoration.

And finally, people who sign up to write postcards are always so nice in their postcards! It makes me feel good about humanity when I receive one.

And so, if you are swapping postcards with me this year, thank you! I hope you enjoy your card.

Till next post.