How To Make Recycled Christmas Decorations With Denim Scraps

The excitement of Christmas for me is not just about the day itself but the preparation leading up to it. I just love crafting for Christmas. Recycled Christmas decorations are my favourite thing to make, like these upcycled scrap denim trees.

These aren’t my first denim Christmas decorations, I make a few each year. I’ve even made trees before but they were tabletop denim trees. These upcycled denim trees are hanging ornaments for the tree.

The denim seams are the only part of a pair of old jeans needed for this recycled Christmas decoration. The seams, hems and waistbands are my favourite parts of a pair of jeans to recycle. They add texture and character to my upcycled crafts.

These scrap denim Christmas ornaments only take 10 minutes to make and are really easy.

Removing The Seams

You want the double-stitched seams on an old pair of jeans. Often these are just on the inside leg and run all the way up the leg. To remove them simply use scissors to cut them out on either side of the stitching.

Sometimes there is a seam that runs along the back of the jeans between the waistband and pockets. The hem at the bottom of the leg and the waistband are also suitable.

Belt loops are like mini seams too, they are a bit too short for this upcycled denim craft. Don’t throw them away though as they become handy for other crafts, I recently used them to decorate spools for my tartan trees.

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What You Need

• A denim seam or hem about 36 cm long – one for each recycled Christmas decoration.
• Bakers twine
• Felt balls in festive colours about 1cm in size
• Felt stars
• Ruler
• Upholstery needle – you want a needle big enough to use with bakers twine and one sharp enough to pierce denim seams.

How To Make A Recycled Christmas Decoration

1.. First, make the needle entry points on the denim seam. Layout the seam next to a ruler and with a pen mark the following points. Basically, the distance between each point decreases by 1cm each time.

1. The first one is at 7cm
2. The second mark at 14cm
3. Then, 20cm
4. 25cm
5. 29cm
6. And finally at 32cm

2. Next, thread the bakers twine onto the upholstery needle. Tie a knot in one. Then thread the needle through one end of the denim seem and the first marked point.

3. Next, thread the needle through one of the felt balls.

4. Then, thread the needle through the next point marked on the seam. Repeat the process of alternate threading the needle through the denim and a felt ball. You should end up using five felt balls and a concertinaed denim seam.

5. Next once the end of the seam has been reached, finish the ornament with a felt star. Just thread the needle through the center of the star.

6. Finally, tie the bakers’ twine to create a hanging loop for the scrap denim ornament.

These recycled denim Christmas ornaments were so quick and simple to make I ended up making three. I used different coloured felt balls for each one. I will probably make more so that I can hang them in a garland.

Whilst hunting through my craft stash I found some larger felt balls. I used these with the denim waistband of the jeans to make a larger denim hanging Christmas ornament.

It was made in exactly the same way as the mini denim seam Christmas trees. Except for this time I made the marked points further apart.

These ornaments featured in the alphabet of denim upcycles. There are more denim upcycles from a single pair of jeans here.

If you like making Christmas ornaments out of scraps of fabric then you might want to check out these.

• Scrap denim angels
• Upcycled sweater Christmas ornaments
• Repurposed sweater felt garland

For more thrifty crafts visit here.