craftgrrl | Denim Woven Placemats (Reply)

The last craft challenge on craftster.org was called New Life for Old Jeans. I didn't finish mine in time to enter the challenge so I'm posting it here.

with flash

I used one pair of jeans to make two placemats. I cut the legs into strips, sewed the edges of the strips to prevent too much fraying, wove (weaved?) the strips together, then sewed the perimeters of the placemats to hold the strips in place.

Then I washed them to get a nice fray. That was hell. When they came out of the dryer they were a tangled mass of jeans and jean fray. It took a lot of time to straighten them out and trim off all the excess fraying. If it weren't for that part, this would have been a very fun project.

Then I decided they weren't quite as sturdy as I was hoping so I got some fusible webbing (Stitch Witchery) and ironed it between the layers of the strips to keep them in place more. I'm not entirely happy with them, although these photos do not do them justice.

Maybe I could turn them into something else? They were too much trouble to make more and placemats usually come in sets of four so I don't feel right giving them away as a gift which was my original intention. What do you guys think?

And I am wondering something: What is something good and sturdy to use as a base for a christmas tree topper?