3-24-15 Jean Skirt

Kate needs a new skirt, so she picked out this pair of jeans from the storage boxes in the basement. I buy jeans at second-hand stores and garage sales in the sizes I know I’ll need at some point; we have a local second-hand store where I’ve purchased three pairs of jeans for a dollar! When the kids need jeans or skirts, they know where to go to get them. This only works for sizes up to 16; I haven’t found many adult jeans second-hand, and when I do find them, it’s hit-and-miss if they fit anyone. 

Anyway. If you’ve ever wondered how to turn a nice pair of jeans into a nice denim skirt, I’ll share what we’ve learned over the last few years.

First step: length check.

Cut to length.

Real precise here – lay the cut-off over the other leg to ensure equal lengths.

Close enough.

Next, using a nice sharp seam-ripper, take out inner leg seam.

On back, take out seam up to the pockets,

or until one side lays (lies?) nicely over the other side, keeping the outer edge of garment smooth and straight.

As opposed to this layout, which is reeally wide. See wrinkles on outer edges? That makes for a huge wide skirt with a very large triangle insert.

We’ll go with this angle. Nice smooth garment, no wrinkles, straight edges.

Hint: before pinning back seam, slip clipboard between front and back of garment; pinning is much easier.

Pin seam as shown, being careful to fold edge under for a finished seam.

Stitch.

On inside, clip excess fabric.

On front of garment, take out stitching up to zipper, and pin and stitch as for back center seam.

Next step: making the insert.

We’ve learned that it saves time and material to make a pattern for the insert; simply put a large piece of paper under the garment and trace it.

Oops. My two selections of fabric don’t match very well at all!

Next option: a few weeks ago I found brand new jeans at Mission Mart for $1. This color matches better, but I’ve never made a second pair of jeans into an insert. I’ve heard that it can be done, but have never been brave enough to try it.

Until now.

I cut off the legs and cut them open right beside the inner leg seam.

Looks like my pattern will fit, and I was careful to center the pattern so the seam was right down the center of the pantleg.

Cut out out the insert, allowing plenty of extra fabric. No measuring here – I just eyeball it and it has always worked out fine.

Pin insert fabric to garment, again using a clipboard, and making sure the pantleg seam is centered. The beauty of this is that the fabric is NOT right side to right side like a traditional sewing project; rather, the WRONG side of the garment is stitched to the RIGHT side of the insert. Which makes stitching very simple, and also makes for a tidy seam.

Looks like my insert is a tad too long but that’s no problem at all, as I’ll trim it later. Too small is a problem, and I’ve had to re-make inserts before because they just didn’t work; but too big is just fine.

Stitch and trim.

Turn garment inside out;

Trim seam allowance.

Front is finished.

Repeat with insert for back of skirt, using same pattern or making another one if necessary. Usually one pattern works for both sides even though the inserts are not exactly the same size.

Kate tried this on, and it is too long; tomorrow she’ll cut off an inch or two and do a straight stitch hem which soon frays. We’ve also done a rolled hem, but since I’ve purchased brand new skirts with a frayed straight stitch hem, and we like that look, and it’s easier than a rolled hem, this is what we prefer.

Another thing: seems like second-hand stores have a lot of denim jumpers and dresses which work very well for the insert piece also. Color match is individual preference – sometimes we try to match perfectly; other times a contrast is preferred. Material match – I have no experience with using different materials, as we’ve always used denim. Some lighter, some heavier, but always denim. Experiment and let me know!

So there you have it. Please feel free to contact me if you have a question or hint; hopefully this is clear enough that you could make one yourself!

CJS – let me know if you want to come over; I know how to do it now!