Reuse denim and make some lovely heart shaped coasters for Valentine’s Day. It’s a great gift idea for friends!

This Valentine’s Day surprise your friends with an eco friendly gift made out of recycled denim! These coasters are super easy to DIY and a super fun gift to give to friends and any special people in your life.

You can reuse and recycle an old pair of jeans, or an old denim jacket for this project. We love to visit our local second hand stores for these projects and choose something affordable with “imperfections” because other people might not want to buy it and we can save it from ending up in the landfills. We also love to use denim because it is easy to sew and so durable.

TIP SAVE TIME:

If you want a simpler DIY project, you can definitely skip some of the steps below and use a flat denim scrap. Create a heart template, then cut the denim in a heart shape and sew it with interfacing using a zig zag stitch to avoid the denim to fray on the edges. Cut any excess of interfacing on the edges until you have a perfect heart coaster shape :) (Watch the video below for extra help)

If you are all about adding some extra fabric scraps on top check out the steps below.

We think the transparency from the tulle adds something interesting and it goes perfect with Valentine’s Day!

MATERIALS:

• Denim scraps

• Cotton fabric scraps

• Mesh tulle fabric scraps or any fabric with transparency

• Fabric scissors

• Sewing machine

• Medium weight fusible interfacing for the back of the coasters

• Thread

How to Make Upcycled Heart Coasters with Denim

1. Create a paper template. Start by creating a heart made out of cardboard or a piece of regular printing paper that is about 4.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches in height.

2. Cut some hearts out of denim. Recycle and re use an old pair of jeans or a denim jacket. Use the heart paper template to trace the denim hearts and cut a couple of them. We used the parts of the jeans from the side of the legs where you can see the seams, I love that part because it looks interesting but it might make your coasters uneven. That’s where we added the cotton fabric, you will see in the image below.

3. Add cotton fabric scraps. We really wanted to mix patterns and textures with different fabrics in this project and we love the results! so after you have your denim heart, add a layer of cotton fabric with a cute pattern. Like I mentioned before, we used some of the part of the jeans from the side of the legs where you can see the seams (like picture below) This part makes one side a bit chunky, so we folded a scrap of cotton fabric and and sew it on that side using a zig zag stitch.

4. Add a top fabric layer of mesh tulle. (Optional). Completely optional, but a cool effect is to add the last layer of fabric on the top using a mesh tulle. We already had some scrap of the pink fabric you see in the picture below, and we loved how the transparency works with the denim and the cotton fabric below.

5. Add interfacing in the back. The last step is to add an interfacing fabric in the back, something with medium weight so the coasters are sturdy and not floppy. Sew the fusible interfacing on the back of the coasters using a zig zag stitch and going around the whole heart at least twice so everything stays in place. Then cut the excess of fabric from the sides.

Your new upcycled denim heart coasters are ready!

Here is a YouTube video with the visuals to guide you step by step. The voice is just in Spanish but you can change the subtitles in English. Let us know if you have any questions in our YouTube channel :)