How Jeans become a Skirt

Well--I still don't have my camera back--but at least I have FINALLY figured out how to get my pictures OFF my phone! (Yippee!!!) They are DEFINATELY lower quaility pictures--but they are the best that I can do right now--so they will have to do!

Now I only have a thousand things that I want to post!! So I have some catching up to do!!

So here is a fun project that I just did for my little gal. She is a skirt wearer. She really does NOT like to wear pants. So when I saw THIS little tutorial I figured it would be a perfect project for my girl! Then we both could be happy--she would be wearing JEANS (which I love) and she can wear her beloved skirt!

I was worried that doing the skirt like it was done in the tutorial from Skip to my Lou would make the skirt be too short. So I changed it up and made it MY WAY. And here is what I did.

I started with 2 pairs of jeans--with only 3 usable legs.

I chopped off the legs right where all the seams meet.

(Be MORE careful than I was--and cut evenly across--see how the back side is longer than the front? Oops! Try and cut them as evenly across as you can)

Then I cut the legs open down a seam. I cut very close to the edge of the seam because I am going to turn the leg sideways and use that edge as the hem of the skirt. (I put a little dab of Fray Check on my finger and ran it along the edge to stop any fraying). This is a cute way to have a "finished edge" without having to do any hemming!

Also--cut off the bottom hem of the jeans (which will become a side seam) as you will be sewing it to another piece and you don't want it to be big and bulky! (I just didn't get a picture of it with the hem cut off)

Then I did the same to the other usable leg. I will use the other pieces of these jeans for another project later!

Then I cut this light colored leg into two equal pieces so that I could insert them as the skirt side pieces. Then I trimmed up any odd angles on all of the leg pieces and made them as close to the same length (meaning length of the skirt so that when they are sewn together they will all hang down the same amount).

NOTE on my pieces: (the darker pieces of jeans will be WIDER as one leg each are going to be the front and back pieces--the lighter jeans were cut in half to be the side pieces)

Next you sew and edge finish (with either a serged or zig zag finish) all the pieces together placing right sides of jeans together--and matching the bottom finished edges together (Remember--this will be your finished edge).

This will make a big pieced jean tube that will look like this:

Next you want to run two basting lines all along the top edge of the skirt. It is easiest if you start at the back and sew a basting stitch till you get to the front--leave a long tail and then start another one at the front and end at the back. This way you are only having to distribute the gathers on one half of the skirt (and since you are working with a very heavy fabric--this will make it much easier!) Then do it again with a second line of basting stitches just offset from your first line.

Then you pull the bobbin threads and start to gather in all the fabric. Once you have your gathers--you can pin the center of your front and back pieces to the front and center of your jeans--as well as match the side seams to the center of your light colored jean skirt pieces. Then continue to distribute your gathers equally. Pin it all in place and it will look like this:

Then you sew all around it on top of your basting stiches--this way when you turn it you won't see the basting stitches.

Don't forget to edge finish this. Jeans will FRAY horribly! you want to make sure to EDGE FINISH!

When you are finished it will look like this inside out.

(Sorry about the bad picture--cell phone camera!!)

Turn it right side out and Ta-Da!

Cute little skirt for a cute little girl!