So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve removed the daybed from the workroom and put it in the lounge. It took me less than a week to stain the calico cover with chocolate icecream, driving home the need to make a cover.

When I removed the daybed I also had to empty the boxes I had kept under it and find other places to store the contents. One of the boxes contained several old pairs of jeans, leftovers from when I’d woven the denim rag rugs. It occurred to me that it would be a neat solution to use them up making a cover.

So I started cutting up the jeans. At first I thought I’d just open up the legs and sew them together in strips, but only a few were long enough to cover the width of the bed and I was worried the thick seams would be a bit uncomfortable to sit or lie on. Instead, I settle on a simple patchwork of squares.

I made a template and got cutting. 119 squares would be needed, and thanks to Paul seeing what I was doing and giving me another worn out pair, I had enough jeans to make it with a leg and a bit spare. I wound up cutting more than 119, though, as I decided to use the holey bits of jeans with another non-holey square of thinner denim behind. This cover is going to come into existence pre-distressed.

The sewing of the squares and rectangles together got done in batches, an hour here and an hour there:

I’d bought some topstitching thread for sewing the seam edges flat, but changing tension across the different kinds of denim meant it went all loopy in places. I eventually gave up and had to spend an hour or two unpicking it all. Red cotton topstitching looked pathetic, so I unpicked an experimental row of that too.

Finally I settled on the navy thread I’d been using already. So the holes looked more deliberate than simple wear and tear, I zig-zagged around them.

Then I lined it with black calico:

So now have a cover that matches the handwoven floor rugs which can be tossed in the wash and I’ve used up most of my stash of old jeans. Two items crossed off my to-do list!