How to Make a Tool From Blue Jeans
September/October 1977
By the Mother Earth News editors
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Anybody who's done any carpenter work at all knows the value of a good t apron for keeping nails, screws, to measure, hammer, square, and other items separate and accessible. "It's se less to spend $2.00, $4.00, or more on storebought work apron, however," s Bull Wilson of La Mesa, California, "when you can make a perfectly serviceable o yourself . . . for nothingl" Bull's secret? fabricates his work aprons from-y , guessed it--wornout blue jeans. Here, how:
STEP 1: Cut the legs off a snug-fittf pair of old Levi's, the same as you would ` do to make shorts. (See Fig. 1.)
STEP 2: Cut along the leg seams and r move the front half of the "shorts", b leave the waistband intact (Fig. 2). Al remove (and save) the belt loops.
STEP 3: Hem the apron's edges a patch any holes that might exist in t former jeans' back pockets. Sew a coup pairs of belt loops together edgewise, to them to one or both sides of the apron act as hammer (or square) holders . . . a you're done! (See Fig. 3.)
Linda Brock (wife of MOTHER staff Travis Brock) made a blue denim t apron (see photo) from Bull Wilson's in structions not long ago . . . and we c vouch for its serviceability. Fact is, we' even go so far as to say that if there's dandier way to keep tools and nails order while doing carpentry work . . . haven't seen it!
