Knot Sew

are these electric plug in or battery? I can remember having some a long time ago, they worked good for patterns. When my oldest daughter was 3 she cut holes in the clothes she was wearing, not funny then but it is now. I think I will take a look at the B@D I always like their stuff, and my finger joints hurt at times. Thanks for the tip

isnthatodd

They are the ones that you plug in to charge.

Flying_V_Goddess

Wish I could have found out about the spring and electric scissors before cutting 10 pairs of jeans on my denim quilt. My hands were SORE!

My suggestions:

*I'd use a heavy duty needle since you're going to be working with thicker fabric. You might not really need it (I'm not sure since I'm not an expert at the durability of needles on certain fabrics), but I'd use it just to be safe so you don't have to worry about your needle breaking in the middle of a seam trying to stitch through two layers of denim. If you own a Singer it'd be a Style 2020 Size 80/118 needle.

*If you plan on getting denim thread, remember to get several spools of it since there's only 164m of it instead of the usual 274m. It goes by real fast! I'd at least get one spool for your machine and another just for bobbin winding. I got the denim thread because the regular "all-purpose" thread looked too thin to be able to hold two thick layers of denim together without breaking.

Knot Sew

I was told somewhere to buy all cotton thread. I used # 40 and 50
Wally world sells jean needles about 2 dollars for 4........Most jeans are sewed with cotton when made. It worked for me. Do you know what was the most fun about sewing on jean fabric? No seam ripper required. If you need to rip out ,just give it a good yank.

cdub

Hi June,

Excellent link! I hadn't seen this quilt pattern before, and I think I may finally get back to making bed sized quilts because of this pattern. After making fabric postcards, bed-sized quilts just look SOOO big :shock: But this pattern has no batting or backing, and not a lot of finishing work, just the wave stitching around the circle edges. Not at all intimidating, with beautiful results. Glad for the idea about the electric scissors, too!

I was thinking of checking eBay for used denim fabric, rather than buying new denim by the yard at the store. Anyone have an opinion on that?

Thanks again,
Crystal

sarah333

cdub, you don't know anybody who could save for you their old jeans.thats the way i do it .i usually use my boys old blue jeans or their cousins.

june6995

A suggestion if I may......consider collecting old jeans from friends and neigbors. They will give them to you. Or at least go to a thrift store or some yard sales and buy used jeans. I would skip kids jeans and buy men's sizes that have larger areas to use, such as the legs. They will be softer and easier to work with considering they have been washed many time.

I tried the design made from circles and thought they were too small. I would make them dinner plate size if/when I begin to work with denim again.

My husband wears out the knees in his jeans (lots of praying, you know!) so I cut out anything I cannot use, after I have cut away the seams. Maybe the dinner plate is a bit too big, but at least the largest circle you can find. I made about 9 pieces with the coffee can lid and felt it was so small I would never get the thing done.

June

Dawn

you might luck out and get some bolt ends or remnants that way, you just really need to know your prices as their is always the shipping costs on top of that.There may be an on line fabric shop that would make bolt ends or 3 metre cuts available at a discount too as that is what our local fabric shops do. I cultivate a relationship with the gals at my favorite store and they post ads on our guild website too or call me when something I am waiting for goes on special that month.
do the fabric stores in your area schedule periodic car pooling or bus tour shop hops. They are usually quite recceptive here if we ask for cetain specials or they give guild members a 10% discount on our regular price fabrics too.

Knot Sew

I pick up jeans, shirts, sheets, blankets, and what have you from friends ,garage sales ect I got some bright gaudy print shirts 100 percent cotton It's going to look good in a quilt......I check remenants.and sales and coupons.......I'm bargin queen

Dawn

were you using a one pound coffe lid, I would recommend intead the lids from the big kilogram size (i gues Us about 3 and a half pound size cans, as they are a bit bigger than a bread and butter plate size.Mom used those for here cathedral window circle quilt and it went together fast.