If you love buying Liquidations and Store Returns, chances are you will eventually end up with a pair of jeans that you just can’t sell due to damage; maybe the zipper is broke, an awful stain you can't get out or there’s a gaping hole. Instead of throwing them in the trash, here’s great ideas to consider! 

I put these ideas in order, based on the part of the jean used. Let’s get started:  

JEAN SEAMS

REPURPOSING: This is super friggin coo! PillarBoxBlue has this incredible idea: Simply cut along the seam and glue onto a jar to create a posh look that reminds me of something you’d drop $65+ on at Nordstrom:

You can even use a tin can to make these… how easy and cost-effective is that?!

Here’s another totally fab idea from Michlina; girly jean bracelets that are made only from the jean seam!

PIECE PARTS SELLING:

Even the SEAMS sell! Jean is NOT a cheap material so crafters are always looking for a way to score it as inexpensive as possible. Because jean cloth stands the "test of time" it doesn't matter if the material is fresh from the factory or previously loved. Check out these couple listings on Etsy for nothing more than jean seams:

POCKETS:

The pocket of the jean is one of the most valuable parts!  Think about it; a pocket it two layers of material, sewn together in a pattern, essentially.  Most have a flap-top.  Almost all have some form of button or clasp.  This makes the bang-for-the-buck and the reusability outstanding!

REPURPOSING: If you can’t save the jeans to sell as jeans you can make at least 1 (but hopefully two!) NO SEW little purses that are the cutest ever!  And the only words I love more than "new sew" happen to be "nachos" and "potatoes", besides that, No Sew is in my Top 10 Fav phrases!

There’s genuinely tons of different ways to reuse jean pockets but if you don’t want to go through the hassle, you can sell them for parts.

PIECE PART POCKETS:

The pockets alone have value:

ZIPPERS

Most decent quality jeans have YKK Zippers, which is universally known as one of the best zippers around!  You can tell if a zipper is YKK because it will literally say YKK:

 So, if there's nothing at all that you can do with the jeans as-is, at least sell the zippers! Check out this etsy listing for ONLY the zipper part of ruined jeans (10 zippers, $14.99! Thats $1.40 per zipper!):

JEAN MATERIAL

This is the actual body of the jean (no zipper, no pockets, no seams)

REPURPOSING:

DocPop invented this chic Coffee Cozy Koozie idea that is absolutely an adorable gift idea:

There’s also the amazing idea to make the jean scraps into bean bags - I don’t know about you but I’m not strong at sewing, but I sure could make a square bean bag!  I wonder if these could be used at heat packs?  I know jean is a mega durable material so I assume it could, but I am not 100% sure.   

DesignSponge has a fantastic idea for making simple wine bags from used jeans. I really love how these look! Even though I’m not crafty when it comes to thread and a needle, I firmly believe I could pull this off because the directions look fairly simple!

REPURPOSING:

If you're not excited about repurposing jean material, this absolutely should intrigue you: the jean material alone can be cut into little squares and sold as-is:

OTHER:  NO SEW & NO CUTTING IDEAS

Let's say you don't want to sew, you don't want to craft and you absolutely don't want to cut.  This next idea from MintedStrawberry isn’t really a project, but instead just a wonderful idea for those Liquidations that have a stain that you can’t get out…. BLEACH ‘em to create a beautiful ombre look:

Or, according to GoldFishKiss you can just draw on them with a Bleach Pen!

We hope these ideas inspired you!  Everything has value, it just depends what value you want to give to it!  Always think before you pitch stuff into the trash, especially when it's expensive materials like jean, wool, cashmere, silk, etc!