How To Make Denim Feather Wall Decor

Repurposing Denim Scraps For A Feather Wall Decor

I got the idea for this denim feather wall decor over the summer whilst making denim tassels.
 
 
It wasn’t a great leap to work out how to make denim feathers from old jeans. The principle was the same as with the tassels. Which is basically fraying scraps of old denim. I just had a few details to work out like the feather spine and shape.
 
 
You can make either a indigo or white feather from one piece of denim scrap. The colour will depend on which way you lay the template onto the scrap fabric.
 
 
Like with the tassels this was a great craft for those of us who find they have fidgety fingers when watching TV. I made these feathers whilst getting stuck into the brilliant Netflix Series Ozark. That’s probably why I ended up making loads of the feathers and hence made them into a wall hanging.
 
 
As well as making a feather wall decor you can also use individual denim feathers make earrings, bag charms, and gift toppers.
 
 

 
 
 
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What you need to make denim feather wall decor

• Denim scraps – The scrap pieces will need to be as big as you want your feathers. You will also need pieces of denim with no seams or embellishments just plain bits of jeans fabric.

 

• Twine – I love Nutscene twine which comes in lots of lovely different colours.

 

• Fabric Mod Podge

 

• Wooden beads 10-12mm with a 5mm hole.

 

• Stick and drawing pins to hang the denim feathers from.

How to Make denim feather wall decor

1. The first thing to do is to cut out a feather shape from your scrap of denim. If you are not confident about doing this free hand you can download my feather template and use this to draw around before cutting out the feather shape.

 
Make sure that the template lies in the same direction with the weave of the denim. Depending on which way you lie the feather template on the denim will depend on what colour feather you will make. Denim tends to be made up of a weave of both blue and white threads.
 

 
 

 
 
 

2. Next cut a piece of twine that is a couple of inches longer than denim feather shape.

 
 

 
 
 

3. Cover the twine in fabric glue and stick it to the center of the denim feather shape. This will create a spine for the feather. You can stitch the twine in place if you prefer that to glue. However, the glue is better as it also stiffens the twine which helps the denim feather hold its shape.

 
 

 
 
 

4. To make the feathers, fray the denim by pulling out the threads. Denim is frayed by removing the threads of one colour. Therefore if you remove the white threads you will end up with blue feathers. If you remove the blue threads you will end up with white feathers.
    
    
   
    
    
    

5. I used this same method to make several feathers, both white and blue in various sizes. To make the wall hanging, I first threaded the twine of both a blue feather and a white feather through the same wooden bead.

 
 

 
 

 
 
 

6. Finally, the pairs of repurposed denim feathers were hung from a wooden stick. They were attached to the stick with a drawing pin at the back.

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
I love how the denim feathers have turned out. You can make a collection of feathers in different shades of indigo by using denim scraps from different pairs of jeans. I think these denim feathers would also look great on a cushion or simply hung in glass frames.
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
If you like this you may want to check out some of the other denim upcycles on Pillarboxblue. Such as the boho jeans pillow, upcycled denim gift tag, denim tassels and a cool denim rug.
 
I even have ideas for denim Christmas decorations
 
 

 
 
 
Or check out favecrafts.com for more DIY feather ideas