Last year at Baby Lock Tech 2024, Tammy saw a jacket that made her say, “WHOA! I need that jacket NOW!” Designed by Denise Schober, the jacket in question was a denim dream in scrap fabrics. The allure was undeniable. We all have a denim jacket in our closets and scrap fabrics lingering in our stashes. Put the two together and you have upcycled sartorial magic.
Determined to reverse engineer this beauty, Tammy set to work creating her own version of Denise’s scrappy denim jacket. We love this project for so many reasons. It’s the perfect spring-summer accessory, it uses up precious scraps that we can’t throw away and desperately want to display, and it preserves our classic denim jackets and gives them new life.
How gorgeous is that jacket?? Tammy added fabric to the elbows as well which really finishes off the whole look. It’s a *chef’s kiss*, as they say.
Tammy’s Easy Scrappy Denim Jacket is a great project for an advanced beginner sewist/quilter. If you make one of your own, please tag @thimblesquilts or share it to the Thimbleful of Sewists & Crafters group on Facebook so we can ogle your stunning scrap choices!
Materials
Denim Jacket
Approximately 10-14 fabric scraps in ⅛ yard cuts
MAGIC Premium Quilting & Fabric Spray
505 Temporary Glue Stick or similar washable adhesive
Top thread like Sulky Blendables
Instructions
Start with an assortment of scrap fabrics that complement and contrast with each other. Start with 10-14 pieces of 1/8 yard cuts of fabrics. Pre-wash and dry all fabrics.
Press fabrics with MAGIC Premium Quilting & Crafting Spray. The spray adds firmness and body to the fabric scraps, making the fabrics easy to work with.
Lay the fabrics on top of each other in two piles. Cut 4 strips approximately 2” wide from each 1/8 yard. Use a Stripology ruler for quick results. Don’t worry about cutting the fabrics the same size. The scraps will be laid out randomly and varied sizes make for a pleasing look.
Rotate the ruler (and the cutting mat if necessary) and clean up the frayed edges of the fabric, cutting the 2”-wide pieces into 4” lengths.
Find the vertical center of the area to be decorated. Mark the center top and the center bottom and draw a vertical line down the center using the Frixion Heat Erase Pen.
Mark two lines, each 1” away from the center line on both sides. These marks will be the guidelines for placing our first fabric column:
Randomly place scraps in a column down the center of the jacket, overlapping fabrics about ¼”.
Continue with your next rows. Try not to have the same fabric next to each other. Feel free to cut fabric pieces smaller than the 4” length originally cut to make the fabrics fit within the frame of the back of the denim jacket.
Continue placing fabrics in columns. Since the top of the jacket is wider at the top than at the bottom, the outer columns will not extend to the bottom of the jacket. Cover the seams on the jacket back. We will trim those later.
After randomly placing the fabrics, glue baste the scraps in place using 505 Temporary Adhesive Glue Stick or other water-soluble glue stick.
Select a top thread that complements the fabrics. In this example, we used variegated Sulky Blendables in pastel shades. On the denim jacket, I used a gold thread. Try using a heavier thread like a 40 or 28 weight to show off the topstitching.
It’s always a good idea to test your threads on scraps before you start your project!
Layer a few fabric scraps on top of each other and try out a few different stitches. Below, I changed the length of the straight stitch. And tested a triple-stitch. I ended up using a standard straight stitch with a 3.0 mm stitch length (far right).
Attach an Edgestitch (sometimes called a Stitch-In-The-Ditch) foot and move the sewing machine needle to the left 2 positions. With the guide of the foot next to the seam of the jacket, stitch down the length of the seam. The stitching will be about 1/8” from the edge of the fabric scraps. Stitch all the way around the outside edge of the jacket center.
(Right side of jacket center)
(Top of Jacket Center)
Continue stitching down the edges of all the scraps.
After the scraps are stitched down, cut away any fabrics that extend over the jacket seams.
Don’t be afraid to travel stitch across your scraps to reduce thread starts and stops. Notice the horizontal stitching lines across the bottom of the jacket.
Finish the jacket by stitching vertical channel stitching at random widths. This helps secure the fabric scraps to the jacket.
I wish I had noticed the phrase before I cut the fabric. It would have been nice to center “I am strong” in the center of the scrap. Keep things like that in mind as you design the layout of your scraps! You may have a scrap particularly suited to the center of your design.
That's it! Enjoy your Scrappy Denim Jacket!
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