Project Denim, Diminishing the Jean Pile, Episode 9 : Milk Can Makeover!

Hi Friends! It's a busy time of year here on my little "Patch-A-Heaven." Spring is just the best!! I've
been working on a BIG project outside (which I will share with you later!) for the past 2 weeks. While I was out there working, I saw my rusty, old milk cans that I absolutely adore! But, I decided they needed a makeover. And you guys know me...I'm a sucker for a denim project! When I ponder ideas for décor...denim is always there for me. I think it's because I want my house to be warm, inviting, relaxed and comfortable. And what's more comfy than your favorite pair of old jeans?!! So I use denim in my home décor A LOT! (Not to mention I have an ever endless supply of old jeans to make stuff out of!!)
So today's DIY denim project will be to pretty up my milk cans. I love to decorate with old farm stuff, but I like to give them my own look too. There are so many ways you could up the style factor on these amazing old cans. Here's what I did.

What supplies I used:
Denim from old jeans and skirts
Burlap, Cream and Gold Colored (Joann Fabric)
Lace trim (Joann Fabric)
Metallic Gold Colored Bias Tape
Buttons from the Jeans and Skirts

What I Did:

I cut a piece of cream colored burlap to be the base of the design. I left the edges raw and fringed. (To cut burlap, make a tiny cut where you want and then pick a string there and pull it all the way out. This makes a space for you to cut down. Then to fringe, just pull out strings until you have the desired look. Save those strings for later!) Then wrapped the burlap around the can. Hot gluing it in place.

I then cut a smaller piece of denim (leaving edges raw and pulling fringe) to wrap around the can on top of the burlap. Then glued it in place. I held the fabric in place with pins as I glued so it would be straight. Then I cut a piece of gold bias tape for the bottom and glued it on. I cut a strip of burlap to wrap around the top tied it in a knot and then made the denim fabric and gold burlap flowers and glued them on. I used the buttons from the jeans and skirts as centers for the flowers. I made a ruffle (with raw edges) out of some chambray denim fabric to wrap around the can too.

The reason I said to save the strings you pulled from the burlap, is so you can make string flowers to embellish the cans. I did this just by taking about 3 strings (you could do as many as you want) and make a loop, then glue the loop in place, then make another loop about the same size and glue the end in the middle of the flower, keep making loops and gluing in the middle to hold the flower until you have a flower the size you want.
These are really fun!!

Here's a close up of the string flowers.

I made some rosette flowers from denim and the gold bias tape for the centers of flowers too. Do this by taking a thin strip of fabric (denim and bias) and make a knot in one end. Then using a hot glue gun, fold and glue the fabric around the knot until you have a flat rosette flower.

Because the first can had so much going on, I wanted the one below to be more simple. Also the top one was plain, but the one below has the cute writing on it that I wanted to show. So on this one I just made a sash to tie around the top out of the gold burlap. Then I cut out a rectangle tied some of the strings around the middle, making a bow, tied it onto the sash and then glued a denim rosette flower in the center. I left some of the gold strings hanging down in the middle for "fringe effect" and also pulled some fringe on the rosette flower denim strip before making it into a flower for more "fringe effect!"

Here is a close up of the top sash and denim/gold burlap flower. I also made another burlap string flower with a gold bias tape rosette to hang from the hole.

And because I loved the gold painted burlap so much I made a pillow out of it too! I wanted it to have the raw fringed edges so I just measured my pillow form and cut the burlap. Then sewed it so the raw edges were on the outside (instead of putting right sides together and sewing then turning) I sewed with wrong sides together and left the fringe outside.

To embellish the pillow I used some extra chambray denim fabric I had lying around to make a ruffle. I made a flower out of some cream colored lace by gathering the lace in the middle and gluing in place in center until I had a flower. I used only hot glue to attach everything. I used the sewing machine to sew the gathered ruffle and the sewing of the pillow.

Here's a shot of the burlap pillow. I styled it with a denim pillow I made on a previous blogs post about using up old denim.

To see the blog post where I made the denim flower pillow click here: Decorative Denim Pillow

Here's the project completed!

I love these old cans, where they came from and what they represent! And now I love them more because they also reflect my own personal style!!

Hope your Spring is shaping up to be perfect! And I'll see ya next time!!