School's Out! Jean Bulletin Board...

So it's the end of the school year and I have found myself surrounded in well worn-no knees remaining and too small jeans.I salvaged what I could into shorts for the summer-(I have a great hemming trick I need to share with you!) but still had a few odds and ends left over. I'm having issues with tossing things out that I know I could use for something so I had to find a use for these little critters. 

 I found it!I cut and sewed the remaining pieces together to form a patchwork wonderland of denim. I made a point to keep the pockets so they could be used to tuck notes or pictures into.

 To make the board (I'm going backwards, sorry and I have no pictures. Wasn't thinking there!) I covered a 3 ft x 3 ft piece of plywood with foam-core poster board. I used two pieces and had to cut them a it to fit the board completely. I glued the foam core into place with wood glue. Then I covered the dry foam-covered board with the fabric piece, attaching it to the back of the board with the staple gun and duct tape! From there it could have been done, it looked great. But I have a tall skinny wall to cover and wanted it to take up a bit more space so I built a frame out of 1x3's and added a 6 inch wide shelf across the bottom.It looks awesome in my daughter's room and she is thrilled to have a "cool" bulletin board. A few after thoughts here-you could easily do this with a store bought bulletin board. Either pop off the frame, cover the board, and then re-frame it. Or just cover the whole thing using your good friend the duct tape to keep it all in place. The pockets are super fun! They are great to hold a pen, extra cash, or a love note from mom. Good choice to use them. All the buttons and zippers were a pain to sew around but they add so much to the overall look of the board I'm glad I kept them.I also made a point to keep some of the patches on the knees-these were my daughters favorite pants, and the patches helped her to recognize them and know in a way she still had them! (She's a total sap-just like her mom!) Overall-a fun project to use up the no longer wearable jeans and a super cute functioning bulletin board.  

Happy Crafting!!!