Denim String Quilt Tutorial
Do you have a sewing machine? Can you sew a straight seam? If your answer is yes you can make this quilt! You will also need an iron, some thread, a cutting mat and a rotary cutter. A seam ripper might come in handy too! And some old denim. Much old denim! I like having many different shades so that my quilt ends up like the one in the photo. But, use what you have!
I’ve made 6 full size denim quilts, and I’m planning at least 2 more in the next couple of years, so my family and friends are always giving me their old jeans. I’m very grateful, but it takes up so much room. I have denim stashed in so many places in my sewing room! I’ve also cut up a couple of skirts and a jacket to use in denim quilts. As you’ll see when you get into this project, very little material is wasted here.
Most jeans now have some spandex in them, and that is fine for this string quilt. However if you think you might like to make a rag denim quilt at some point, keep any denim that is spandex free to use for that project. I have several old pairs of Levi’s on my shelves that I am keeping just for this purpose.
Now for the string quilt.
The first thing to do is cut sections 14 inches long from your denim. If you are using jeans, trim the hems off the bottom of the legs and then cut sections just over 14 inches. You will need to cut a little longer than 14 inches so that you can trim your edges into straight lines. Cut your 14 inch sections into various widths from 2 inches up to 6 inches. While you can leave the original seams in the denim strips if you want, it will make your sewing a little more difficult because of the multiple layers or denim, so you decide. For this quilt I only left the seams if they were fairly flat.
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Next just randomly pick those 14 inch pieces and start sewing them together into a long strip. If it gets too unwieldy, stop sewing and start a new strip. When you need a break from sewing, iron your strips, trying to get the seams to all go in the same direction. Notice I said try to do that? Denim sometimes has a mind of its own and some pieces might refuse to be ironed in one direction. If that happens, don’t sweat it. No big deal!
The next step is to cut 14 inch blocks out of the strips you sewed together. Place it on your cutting mat and see where 14 inches takes you. If you end up on or near a seam, turn your strip around and try cutting from the other end. If you still end up on or within an inch of a seam, you can either trim some off one of your ends, or you can sew another strip on one of the ends. I prefer sewing more on, but I audition the strip I sew on to make sure it will give me a 14 inch block with no seams in the way.
Keep cutting, sewing and trimming until you have enough 14 inch blocks. How many is enough you might ask? Good question. To answer I’ll throw another question back at you. How big do you want your quilt? The picture at the top is a queen sized bedspread, which needs 60 blocks. A queen or double sized quilt top will need 30 blocks while a twin top will need 20 blocks. Easy so far right!
Now more trimming. First iron each of your squares and gently pull the denim to be sure that you have flat 14 inch squares. Lay on your cutting mat and cut in half diagonally in both directions, being careful not to move the denim between cuts. You should have 4 equal sized triangles when you have finished cutting.
Fold one triangle over one of the pieces next to it, and then fold the other two pieces into a pile. Line up the two outside corners, and then sew the long edge opposite the outside corners together for each pair of two triangles. Hopefully when you matched your outside corners the long edges also were close to meeting. If they weren't, you may not have been careful enough when you cut on the diagonal. Iron open. You should now have two squares from each of your original 14 inch squares.
Trim each of these squares into 9 inch squares. If your squares aren't big enough to be trimmed to 9 inches it is probably because of your diagonal cuts again. But don't panic. Determine the biggest size that the smallest of your squares can be cut into (for example 8 1/2 inches or 8 3/4 inches), and cut all your squares that size. It won't matter what size your squares are as long as they are all trimmed to the same size at this point.
Next audition groups of four of these 9 inch square blocks into a large block. See how I placed them together so that my lines are pointing to the centre? You can do that, or you can try other arrangements. Once I’ve chosen 4 blocks for a square, I pile them so that they are ready for the next step. Sometimes I have to acknowledge that I can’t use a particular block because Pepper Cat claims it. She's a great sewing companion until she decides to claim a piece of fabric or a pair of scissors.
Now we are going to make our sashing. This is where we use up all your scraps. You need pieces that are 2 1/2 inches wide, but they can be any length that you have the patience to sew. I sometimes use pieces as small as 2 inches long. These 2 1/2 inch pieces can be cut from anywhere. I usually cut out the zipper, cut along beside any major seams, and then see what is left. I especially like cutting off the waistband, using a seam ripper to rip the seams, and then trimming to 21/2 inch widths. These pieces are fairly long, and sometimes they have nice bits of writing on them like the pair in the photo that used to belong to my daughter. You may or may not like that.
Keep cutting and then start sewing these strips together. When you think you have enough, cut and sew some more! You’re going to use a lot of these strips because they are used for sashing and binding. So keep cutting and sewing. Then iron and roll into pucks as in the next set of photos.
You will see that I strip sew, then cut the strips and sew these pieces together and then cut and sew these together and then...this part does get tedious, but still easy right? The size of my pucks vary according to how much I have cut and ready to sew, and how much time I have. Don’t worry about making too much. You'll likely need to make more to finish, but keep going and use up all your scraps even if you are sure you have enough because you will make a second denim quilt! You'll have family and friends requesting one and bringing you gifts of old jeans!
The next step is sashing. Go back to your stack of 9 inch blocks and take your top pile of four. Lay them out again to be sure you have them in the order you want them. Take the two blocks on the top of your square, and sew a piece of sashing between them. Trim the edge of your roll of sashing along the edge of your blocks. Be careful as you are sewing that you won’t end up at a seam on your sashing. If you will, reposition the end to a better place and trim from the top. If it is longer than 2 inches keep the piece you trimmed off and sew it on again later!
Repeat the same steps to sew the sashing between the bottom two blocks, and then iron. Next take your top piece of the square, which is the first pair you joined with sashing, and sew a piece of sashing along the entire bottom. I forgot to take a photo of this, so I’m going to highlight by editing another photo. Pretend that I haven’t sewed the bottom piece on in this cropped photo!
You’re going to finish this block by sewing the bottom part (the second two 9 inch squares) to the sashing you just sewed along the bottom of the top half. This is the only place where you have to be careful and maybe pin. Position your two pieces together and be sure that the sashing for the top and the bottom line up. Pin and sew. This is the only place I pin when I am making this quilt top. If you are new to sewing and you think you should pin in order to keep your pieces straight, fill yer boots. (If you aren't from Newfoundland that translates to 'go ahead'.)
Now you have a finished block. The queen bedspread is 5 blocks by 6 blocks. The queen or double quilt top will be 3 by 5. The twin will be 2 by 5.
Now all we have left is the back and the binding.
You won’t need batting for this quilt because it will be thick and heavy as is. Some people might argue that without batting it is not a quilt, but we’re going to ignore them and love our quilt!
I’ve used several different materials for my back fabric for denim quilts including fleece, flannel, an acrylic blanket and cotton. I like the fleece backed ones best, but you choose what you like, or use what you have. It’s perfectly ok to go to Walmart and buy several of the $2 fleece blankets to sew together and use. Or you can go to your fabric store and buy a higher quality fleece or some other material. Your choice. Either way, make sure once you sew your back pieces together it is a little bigger than your denim top.
You need a large flat surface next. I like to use my deck outside when the weather cooperates. Lay out your bottom. Carefully get rid of any folds or wrinkles. Then lay your denim top and top of the bottom. Now you pin. Start near the centre and put a pin in one of the original 9 inch blocks. Smoothing as you go, put pins in all the 9 inch blocks around the one you started with, and continue until you have pins in all blocks. Turn over and check to see that your bottom is still relatively flat with no wrinkles or folds. If it’s not you have to fix it.
Now the quilting. This can be as simple or complicated as you like. Because the denim is heavy, you are best off going with a more simple choice. Stitching in the ditch along the sides of some or all of your sashing is your easiest choice. You can also attempt diagonals along your inside squares. In my bedspread I did a novelty stitch on the diagonals. You choose what you like keeping in mind that the quilt is bulky and will be difficult to manage on an ordinary domestic machine so simple is better. Did I meantion that simple is better? Lol.
Now the binding. Quilting would be so much easier without binding. Oh well...
If you are an experienced quilter go ahead and use your preferred method here. Good luck with the mitered corners using denim! It can be done, but your sewing machine will be yelling at you!
If you aren't an experienced quilter, I'm going to lead you through a method that will lead to a beautiful finished product.
Measure the top and bottom of your quilt, which are your shortest edges. Cut a piece of sashing, (which is now the binding) from your fabric pucks for each of those edges. Did you have to make more? Lay the piece of binding on the back of your quilt, right sides together, and sew together. You are going to have many layers here when you cross seams, so you might think about sewing these seams twice for extra strength.
Iron the seam open. Now turn your quilt denim side up and place on a long ironing board or table. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of this. You should see the top of the quilt with the wrong side of the binding you just sewed on facing up. Fold the top of the binding towards you 1/4 inch, and iron the fold. If the fold doesn't want to stay in place, you may have to force the fold by pinning!
Next take the binding and carefully fold over the seam allowance you created when you sewed the binding to the back of the quilt. Iron or pin in place. I generally pin here. Now you should see the right side of the binding with no raw edges because you already ironed these down. I don't have a photo of this either, but I'll edit another picture to have a portion to show you what it should look like. This piece has been sewn, but yours should look like this minus the sewing.
The second choice is to machine sew a seam from the top close to the ironed fold in your binding. Unless you very carefully pin and sew so that you exactly hit the seam or the edge of the binding in the back, you will notice this seam on either the binding or fabric on the back. If your thread is a good match it won't be very noticeable, especially if you backed with fleece. After the quilt is on a bed no one looks at the back!
The other choice is to choose a decorative stitch and sew just as I described above. Then even though you notice the seam on the back, it will look nice.
Once you have completed the binding on the top and bottom, you follow the exact same procedure for the sides, except you have an additional inch of binding on each end of each side that is not sewn on. After you fold over the seam allowance, with each end you refold on the same fold line so that the right sides are together and then sew a seam that nests against the binding you sewed on for the top and bottom. Turn right side out and push out the corner, then iron or pin in place to sew. Again no photo (sorry), but it should look like the photo below, except you haven't sewed yet. This one had the binding hand sewn many years ago.
If you want to try mitered corners, there is a good tutorial you can watch at the link below.
After you have made a couple of denim quilts, you will make a mitered corner!
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Send me a photo of your quilt! Cheers!
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