OLFA cutters cut through denim with ease – Make a denim quilt

When I was presented with the Gütermann Demin Thread Box for this week’s posts, I knew exactly what I wanted to create, a clothing-inspired denim quilt.

Clothing-inspired denim quilt

This quilt measures 56” x 70” before quilting.

materials

·         Gütermann Denim Love Nostalgia Box Denim Thread 100m 12 Shades

·         OLFA Deluxe Ergonomic Handle Rotary Cutter 60mm

·         OLFA Tungsten Tool Steel Rotary Blade 60mm – 5pcx

·         OLFA 24″ x 36″ Double Sided Rotary Mat

·         Oliso Pro TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron

·         Omnigrip Ruler – 8¹⁄₂″ x 24″ (21.6 x 61cm)

·         Omnigrip Ruler – 20¹⁄₂″ x 20¹⁄₂″ (52 x 52cm)

·         SoftKUT Dressmakers’ Scissors – 8¹⁄₄″ (21cm)

·         Fairfield Quilter’s 80/20 Quilt Batting – 229 x 274cm (90″ x 108″)

·         HeatNBond Non-Woven Light Weight Fusible Interfacing – 50.8cm x 22.8m (20″ x 25yds)

·         UNIQUE Quilting Clever Clips Small – 12 pcs

Supplies for this week’s quilt project

The fabrics for this week’s quilt are from old pairs of well-used and love jeans.

When I got the idea for this quilt, I didn’t have the required quantity of jeans. Luckily, when I put out a call to friends for their old jeans, they answered. I didn’t care what color or condition they were in as long as they were not stained with paint and such.

I received more pairs of jeans than I could use. I made sure to start cutting up the worst pairs first. The unused jeans, which are still in good condition, will be donated once I’ve completed the quilt.

Nine pairs of used jeans

For most of my quilting, I use a 45mm rotary cutter such as the OLFA Splash Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm. Since this week I’m cutting through several layers of denim, I’ll be using the OLFA Deluxe Ergonomic Handle Rotary Cutter 60mm. When I start a project, I make sure I have spare rotary blades for the cutter I’m using. Therefore, I got a package of OLFA Tungsten Tool Steel Rotary Blade 60mm.

It’s important to have the extra blades because metal, such as a zipper, a button and grommets are used in the construction of the quilt.

OLFA Ergonomic Rotary Cutter 60mm and a package of OLFA Tungsten Tool Steel Rotary Blades 60mm.

To make this quilt, I started by cutting the legs off five pairs of jeans. As per the photo, the jeans were cut right below the crotch seam.

Cutting the leg off a pair of jeans

I used a pair of SoftKUT Dressmakers’ Scissors – 8¹⁄₄″ (21cm) to cut along the inseam of the jean’s leg.

Cutting a pant leg open

Even though these jeans have been repeatedly worn and washed, the outer seams on the legs are fairly straight. Therefore, I used the seam as a guide to line up my ruler to remove the bottom hem.

Remove the bottom hem.

With everything lining up, I cut off the bottom hem of each pant leg.

Cut off the hem.

I needed to square off each pant leg, As the length and width of the pant legs are longer and wider than the rulers I have, I used both the Omnigrip Ruler – 8¹⁄₂″ x 24″ (21.6 x 61cm) and the Omnigrip Ruler – 20¹⁄₂″ x 20¹⁄₂″ (52 x 52cm). I butted the edge of both rulers together just below the leg’s inner seam and ensured both rulers were perfectly aligned. Then I trimmed the top and side edges.

Using two rulers to square off a pant leg

I carefully moved both rulers ensuring they were aligned with the two sides which were just trimmed before trimming the other two edges.

Trim the third and fourth sides of the pant leg.

Repeat the above steps to trim a total of 14 pant legs.

This completes the first steps for the making of this quilt.

Today’s post was made possible with the help of the following tools.

·         OLFA Deluxe Ergonomic Handle Rotary Cutter 60mm

·         OLFA Tungsten Tool Steel Rotary Blade 60mm – 5pcx

·         OLFA 18″ x 24″ Double Sided Rotary Mat

·         Omnigrip Ruler – 8¹⁄₂″ x 24″ (21.6 x 61cm)

·         Omnigrip Ruler – 20¹⁄₂″ x 20¹⁄₂″ (52 x 52cm)

·         SOFTKUT Dressmakers’ Scissors – 8¹⁄₄″ (21cm)

Omnigrip rulers and OLFA 60mm rotary cutter

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make the blocks for the quilt.

This is part 1 of 5 in this series

Go to part 2: How to cut and piece denim from old jeans to make quilt blocks

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