How to Make Denim Yarn

I get asked quite often how I make denim yarn, so I thought it would be a great topic for my first tutorial on my new blog!  Here are a few examples of the pieces that usually catch people’s eye!

Almost one year ago I was brainstorming what to make and enter in the contest at Carolina Fiber Fest.  I was trying to come up with something that would blow the judges mind.  I figured they would get a bunch of scarves and shawls… and I am sure they would be beautiful and made with heart.  But I wanted something totally different.  I went through a lot of options and finally decided to test out crocheting with different kinds of material.  Things that weren’t traditional.  I thought about grocery store bags and a few other things, but finally decided to try denim.  I watched some tutorials and it seemed pretty easy.  We went to Goodwill and bought a few pairs of jeans.  I took them home and washed them before diving in to make yarn.  I will be honest.  It was not very smooth.  When I went to Goodwill I just grabbed jeans that looked good and were kind of the same color.  Now I know better!  And so will you, so you won’t make the same mistakes I did!

The seams were the biggest issue!  Some jeans have a single stitch seam made by a regular sewing machine.  These are NO BUENO!  When you cut them into strips, there’s only a few tiny little threads hold the seam together.  Then when you try to crochet with it they just fall apart.  In the beginning I thought it was a fluke and was hand sewing them back together.  But then they all started falling apart and I was super frustrated.  I learned that you need serged seams because they have more strength and won’t fall apart on you.  In my video I will show you examples of each. 

Once I got the seam thing fixed I started crocheting.  I learned that stretch jeans work so much better than the more traditional denim that is stiff.  I learned a whole bunch of other things about what jeans I like working with and I shared all of that in the video below.  I also learned that you should never go to Goodwill and try to shoot videos on senior citizen discount day.  It was so crowded and so noisy!  And I am a quiet little bird, but I tried really hard to be loud enough to be heard over the people sorting through the loud, noisy bin of random golf clubs.  Ha!

I hope you love working with denim yarn as much as I do.  Whenever I bring my denim yarn creations to shows they get a lot of attention because they are so unique.  I would love to see what you make with it, so please tag me when you post them!

Fiber Astrid