How to Turn Old Jeans into Swanky Sunglasses

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In need of some new sunglasses? Have some old jeans lying around?

Then why not kill two birds with one stone and make some sunglasses from your old jeans? While it might sound like a ridiculous idea, the following guide will take you through the process of turning junk jeans into funky sunglasses.

Let's follow a special process created by a company called Mosevic, which has developed a technique for doing just that!

The first step is to cut up the old jeans into roughly equally sized strips and rectangles.

Next, the bio-resin is prepared, as per the manufacturer's instructions, and the jean strips and rectangles are soaked within it. 

Next, excess resin is strained off and a pile of rectangular pieces is created on a plastic sheet. 

Roughly halfway through the layers of rectangles, the resin-soaked strips are folded over and placed onto the base layer of rectangles, as shown in the video. 

Next, more layers of jean rectangles are added to the pile until all pieces have been used up. Now, the entire pile of resin-soaked denim is placed into a press and any excess resin is squeezed out.

Mosevic has developed a special mold frame, especially for this process.

After letting the resin cure, Mosevic trims off any excess dried resin from the frame edges and liberate the jean-resin sheets from the frame. 

Here is what it looks like after this stage has been completed. 

The next stage of the process is to machine the sheets into the basic sunglass shapes. Mosevic secures the resin-denim sheets onto a base frame and then use a machining tool to cut out the sunglass frames, arms, and other components. 

This part of the process is automated, but you can try your hand at it yourself.

Where applicable, parts are painted and laser etched to include branding and decoration. Other custom made components are also produced, including steel core springs, hinges, etc.

Next, the arms of the sunglasses are assembled. Metal components are adhered into place, secured, and left to cure.

At the same time, a final layer of denim is added to the metal-denim-resin laminate to complete the arms. The entire assembly is then pressed to hold them in place until adhesive and resin have fully cured. 

Once cured, excess denim is trimmed off using a specially designed frame and a Dremel. The arms are now complete and ready for final assembly. 

Next, the main sunglass assembly can begin. 

Like the arms, metal reinforcements are adhered into place using a special frame -- just like the arms. 

Once complete, another layer of denim is added to cover the metal parts. The entire assembly is then held in a press, once again, until cured. 

In the meantime, the arms are also attached to the main sunglasses assembly and also held in specially designed frames to ensure they are aligned precisely. 

The assembly is then left to cure. Once dry, the sunglasses are then removed from the frame and are looking more like a real pair of sunglasses than you'd find at an optician's. 

Once again, excess denim material is trimmed off the sunglasses. This is done by hand. 

Next, the sunglass arms are removed and the frame and arms are sanded down to provide a smooth edge on all sides. 

Scrapers are also used to tidy up parts of the sunglasses, where required. According to the manufacturer, the entire process has taken many years to perfect. 

The process is quite labor-intensive and it takes, roughly, two or so weeks to make a small batch of these jean sunglasses. 

A mixture of power tools and hand tools are used to scrape, sand, and polish the frames and other components until just right. Each one is constantly checked by eye and calipers to ensure the creator is happy with each and every piece. 

One of the final finishes is a coating of natural wax to protect the denim and exposed metal components. Like other parts of the process, the wax is applied by hand. 

This coating also makes the sunglasses waterproof. With the frames effectively complete, it is time to add the lenses. 

To do this, the frames are heated to allow the lenses to simply be popped into the frames. 

With the lenses in place, the final step is to curve the sunglass arms so that the glasses fit snuggly on a human head. Once complete, the sunglasses are given a final polish and visual quality check before being packaged and sent to the customer. 

These sunglasses come in a range of styles and colors. If you want to see Mosevic's full range, check out their website here.