Recycled Jeans

What You Need:

• An old pair of blue jeans
• Scissors
• Polar fleece or felt for lining
• Fabric marker 
• Pins
• Needle and thread
• Compass
• Scrap paper
• Ruler
• Calculator

What You Do:

1. Lay the jeans out on the floor and cut off one leg just below the knee. This is going to be the basket. Flatten it out so that one seam is at the very edge of the leg.
2. Fold the polar fleece or felt. Lay the jean leg with this seam edge along the fold.  
3. Use the fabric marker to make a line at the top edge (the cut edge) of the blue jean leg and the bottom edge (the hem) of the blue jean leg. This way the lining will be exactly as tall as the jean leg. Make one more line with the marker. Opposite the fold, make a line 5/8 of an inch from the jean leg. Now the lining will be slightly wider than the jean leg.  
4. Cut on these three lines and keep the lining folded. Pin the lining along the edge opposite the fold.  
5. Sew a 5/8 inch seam along the pinned line.  
6. Slip your lining into the jean leg. Pin in place.
7. The edge where the jeans were hemmed (the bottom of the pants leg) will be the top of the basket. Sew the lining and the jean leg together at the top of the basket.  
8. Now you'll need to cut a piece of denim that will be the base of the basket. First, make the pattern for this circle. Flatten out the jean leg and measure how wide it is. Divide this number by 3.14. This number is the radius of the circle. Set the compass at this number, draw the pattern and use it to cut out a denim circle.
9. Turn the basket inside out and pin the bottom of the basket in place, cut edge to cut edge. It'll take some wiggling and adjusting to get a good fit.  
10. Sew it into place and turn the basket inside out.  
11. Roll the top of the basket down so that the lining shows. Use this basket for markers, colored pencils and other tall art supplies.