I made a huge mega batch of chocolate chip cookies, and I wanted something festive to put them in, so I once again turned to the biscuit tubs from M&S which I made a flowerpot from last year. Funnily enough, I think my mother in law was more impressed with the container than the gift inside! All told, this project cost just a few pennies as it was made from cheap things which I had lying around in my crafting stash. You can have a go yourself using any old container and a pair of jeans, or any fabric.

Recycled Jeans & Plastic Tub Gift Box

You will need:

• 1 old container (plastic, metal, cardboard or whatever)
• 1 pair old jeans
• glue (I used hot glue but craft glue would work fine)
• small bits of felt
• small amount of yarn (I used cheap acrylic yarn)
• crochet hook suited to the size of yarn
• chalk or pencil

Instructions:

1. Cut down the seam of the legs of the jeans and lay them out flat, right side down.
2. Draw around the edges of the container onto the denim with dressmaker’s chalk or pencil.
3. Cut out your pieces and trim to the correct size. Don’t worry if they are not perfect edges, as the edges will be covered with glue & yarn.
4. Glue your denim onto the container to cover all sides.
5. Cut out felt pieces to make decorations, and glue them on.
6. With a crochet hook, make a chain of yarn the same length as the edge of the container. Do the same for all edges you want to cover.
7. Glue the yarn chain to the edges of the container. You’re done!

So when it was my friend Jane’s birthday, I whipped out a mega huge crochet hook, some scissors, and made this groovy denim bowl out of the legs of those jeans. I just cut lengthways back & forth almost to the edge, resulting in a long strip that I crocheted in the round to make the bowl. I increased/decreased on each row to shape the bowl.

I think it looks pretty cool. When I gave it to Jane I filled it with some sachets of homemade bath salts, and I reckon it was a pretty darn good gift.