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Pot holders from jeans pockets - a tutorial

I saw one of these at a friend's house a few weeks ago, and loved the idea of them! Having recently bought some jeans from the charity shop for 50c a pair, I thought I'd have a go at making my own pot holders!

Here's how:

First gather your materials. You will need 2 back jeans pockets, some fleece for the batting (padding) on the inside, pretty material for the other side of the holders and contrasting material for the binding round the edges.

Cut around the back jeans pockets leaving as much space as you can. 


Then neaten up the edges. Mine were 20 x 18cm (8 x 7").  Then cut pieces the same size from the pretty fabric and your fleece. 
Also cut strips from the contrasting fabric, 6cm (2.5") wide for the binding around the edge.  You will need strips that total in length, the distance all the way around your holders, plus a little extra to spare for the hook.
(I needed about 1 metre (39.5") for each pot holder.


Pin together the pretty fabric and the fleece.

Then stitch together. 

 I decided to try out another bit of quilting (I'm very much a beginner at this).  I just ran wiggly lines of stitching down the fabric.  It's quite fun not having to keep a straight line for a change - and just wiggle woggling all over the place!

With my fabric being stripy, wiggly lines may not have been the best choice!  I tried the wiggles both ways - what do you think?


Then pin and stitch together your fleece parts to your pocket parts, so you have the pockets and the pretty fabric facing outwards.:

Now to the binding.  Take your strips of fabric and stitch them together to make 2 long pieces - one for each pot holder:

Then using your iron, press each strip in half lengthways. Then open it up and press the edges in again to touch the center crease:

Then finally fold the whole strip in half again so all the raw edges are completely hidden and press again:

And now you have your two strips of binding ready to attach to the pot holders. Trim around the edges of your pockets to neaten up the edges and you're ready to go!

Now here is where I admit I'm not very good at binding. 
If you want a nice clear set of instructions for perfection - and handstitching to finish off - here's a good one. I would recommend you take a look at how it should be done properly!!

Me - I opened up my binding and pinned one side all around, folding the ends under to hide the raw edges, and trimming the end to make a loop for the hanger which I pinned to the reverse side.  I stitched all around, folded the binding over, and machine stitched it down on the other side.  It's not perfect - but practical !  The raw edges are hidden and the edges of my pot holders are bound!
Apologies to those perfectionists out there. One day with practice I might get the hang of binding - but for now this will have to do!


And there you have it - two pot holders made from jeans pockets and scraps!


Hang them up and they're ready to use!

A nice upcycle - and use of scraps!


For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

If you enjoyed this tutorial - there over 100 more free sewing tutorials for all levels of sewing ability to be found here on my tutorials page!



63 comments:

  1. What a cute idea. Thanks for sharing. It is simple too.

    Enjoy the rest of your week.

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  2. These are great, Jill! And I LOVE the idea of the wiggly lines for a beginning quilting technique. Thanks for the great tute and idea!

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  3. I LOVE upcycling jeans! The possibilities are endless it seems. I have not seen the potholders however. Super cute!

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  4. This is such a cute idea!! I wish I could sew. :)

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  5. Great work, that's a very interesting idea! Have a great day!

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  6. This is a great project! Thanks for the tute. I'm not great with applying binding, but little projects like this are great practice.

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  7. I like this! I will have to hunt out some old jeans!!
    Feel free to submit this to my link party, would love to share it with more people!
    http://toastiestudio.blogspot.com/2012/01/made-monday.html

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  8. Really cute idea! I love upcycling ideas and I have some old jeans that I have been using for rag quilts, so this would be great for using the pockets up. I also like that this would be a very manly gift with the right colour choices. It's always hard to make something for the men in our lives.

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  9. How adorable is this idea?! LOVE this! Pinning it! :)

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  10. I love these potholders ! I hope you will share them at my party, Some Good Stuff, http://some-good-times.blogspot.com/2012/01/some-good-stuff-2.html

    Megan

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  11. Love the blue jeans pot holder. Thanks for sharing it.

    Eilis
    my-heart-lives-here.blogspot.com

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  12. i like that idea! it's just great and looks easy to made. thanks!

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  13. Very cute! I love upcycled crafts.

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  14. These are adorable. Stopping by from Creative Itch's linky party and your newest follower. Also, I'm participating in your blog hop too.

    Here is what I shared: http://craftybrooklynarmywife.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-first-amp-cover.html

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  15. Those are too cute! I found you through Craft-O-Maniac. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  16. Love this idea! Thanks for sharing @'Sew Cute Tuesday'! I'll be featuring you on 1/17, so be sure to stop by and grab a 'featured' button!

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  17. I love this project. More ideas to recycle!

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  18. Jill, Saw these over at Reduce Reuse recycle first...So smart and fun. You are always coming up with something clever. Much care to you.

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  19. These look awesome! I am so going to make some :) I just pinned it so I can remember where to find the tutorial!

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  20. Neat idea! I shared this on my Facebook page :) facebook.com/cardboardcrafter

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  21. great idea, thanks for posting this!

    www.notimefortea.com

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  22. Such a great idea. I am going to have to do this! You should totally link this up to my homemade year linky party. This is too creative!!

    Danielle from Blissful and Domestic

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  23. Great idea for jeans!!! I'm featuring you on my blog - pop over to grab a button!
    Green Issues by Agy

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  24. Cute and a great upcycle. If I ever get half my projects I want to finished, I'd have enough stuff for a brick & mortar, much less etsy store, lol. Not much danger there, stuff gets in the way, ya know? Thanks.

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  25. These pot holders just make me smile! I love the fabric you chose to go with the denim, it spruces it up so nicely. Not to mention, it's such a nice way to use up some scraps. Thanks for the inspiration!
    Beth
    www.chicenvelopements.wordpress.com

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  27. This is very cool! great idea, love it!
    Thank you for giving this tutorial.

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  28. What a great idea. i will definitely be doing this with old jeans. Thank you for the great tutorial

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  29. I'm going to definitely make these but I'm going to use bias tape instead because I have alot of it.

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  30. Lovelly project, I love recycle old jeans and that´s a great ideia. Thansks for sharing :) Ana

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  31. thank you so much for your time to make this great tutorial and sharing it with every one, i love to make these.
    love.......nancy

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  32. I found this through All Free Sewing and as I'm currently in a potholder swap, and was looking for something a little different, these will be ideal! thanks so much for making this tute available :).

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  33. Hi Jill, I've featured your Jeans Pocket Pot Holders today...
    http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/2012/07/threading-your-way-features.html

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  35. Thanks, I was looking for something different to do with some old jeans.
    Great idea for a birthday present for a cook.

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  36. I really liked the look of your freehand "wiggly line quilting technique" that FOLLOWED the stripes. Thanks for sharing...Barbara

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  37. These are so cute, I just got rid of a pile of jean with holes in the knees from my son,wish I would have kept them for this-next time!

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  38. You have so many wonderful tutorials on your site and I love the idea of using jean pockets this way. I don't mean to sound preachy or critical, but I feel that I must caution people on using fleece around heat. Polar fleece is made from recyled plastic bottles and will melt if exposed to heat, so cotton batting or insul-brite would be much safer to use between your layers.

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  39. Great idea for a use for jeans! I featured it on my blog with a direct link back at http://whittskitsfabricscrafts.blogspot.com/2013/03/mining-monday-10-terrific-potholder.html
    Thanks!

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  40. Such a cute idea! I did make a variation of it and wanted to say thank you for the inspiration:@)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting me know - just popped over to see - great take on the idea!

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  41. Thank you VERY much for including a printable/downloadable file. I suspect we have all wanted to save a pattern or idea for later and found it difficult or impossible to print or save the instructions.

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    1. You're so welcome! I'm glad people are finding them useful!

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  42. I saw this on Threading My Way's denim round-up today. So cute!!! I just might have to make these. What a great wedding shower gift! I hate binding, though! I guess I need to practice. :( Pinning to my denim upcycles. :)
    Gina @ Gina's Craft Corner

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    1. Thanks Gina. I'm not great on binding either, really need to practice more!

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  44. For those of you that don't like to do binding, you could, put the pieces together,right-side facing,sew around all edges leaving a 2ish inch hole on the bottom, then turn it right-sides out and then whip stitch the hole closed or top-stitch it closed. If I did the latter I would just top stitch it around all four sides. that would give you a bit of a binding look.
    Also, sense we are re-cycling clothing, try finding an old wool sweater,(wash it in hot water,to felt it.) then use that as the "batting". wool is a natural insulator,of sorts, and you could even do with out the back fabric, sew the jean pocket to the wool and sew your binding on and your done.
    Hope I did not step on any ones toes! If I did Sorry!

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    1. Thanks for the tips with the binding and the idea of using wool for the batting!! Brilliant!

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  45. Very good idea! I'll try it this weekend. Thank you.

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    1. Thanks Damaris! Would love to see a picture if you make them!

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  46. Thank you Jill for a brilliant tutorial great idea x

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  47. LOVE the upcycling aspect of this. The jeans pocket is genial, because you can put your hand in it. Super!

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    1. Thanks Rose. I love my set and use them every day! :)

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  48. I think your "wiggle woggling" quilting is a great idea! I am not a quilter so I am going to give this a try!

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    1. Thanks - it's really simple and looks nice too!

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  49. 2016 and this idea is still going strong! Such a fun idea and simple to follow. Thank you for sharing and providing a free pdf download! I'm a self taught everything...crocheting, sewing, quilting, you-name-it, with that being said I firmly believe the best way to learn is by just trying and learn from what you do. I like the wobble lines that ran with the fabric lines and I think you did a great job. Love and blessings!

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    1. Thanks so much!! Just doing and giving things a try is definitely the best way to learn, I agree!

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