If you love making over a good thrift store find, then you’ll love this fab jeans-to-skirt refashion! Made using upcycled denim, this refashioning tutorial shows you how to create a stylish new skirt from a pair of oversized jeans. The highlight of this project is the asymmetrical waistline, which adds a unique element to a classic garment. Stop wasting money on store-bought basics when you can design a cute, custom-fitted skirt for next to nothing.
Skill Level: Intermediate
Finished Size: Varies according to pant size
Seam Allowances: N/A
Materials:
- Denim jeans
- Thrift or find an old pair of jeans in your wardrobe that is at least two sizes larger than what you currently wear
- Jeans/denim needle size 100
- Scissors
- Hand sewing needle
- 1 large snap
- 1 button that will fit through existing jean buttonhole
- Matching topstitching weight thread to your jeans
- Seam ripper
Instructions:
- Starting at one hem, cut the entire inseam of your jeans.
- Cut up the back crotch curve starting at the crotch point and ending at the base of the curve. Make sure to cut right on the seam and not through any topstitching.
- Cut completely up through the front crotch curve from the crotch point to the top of the waistband on the side opposite the fly front topstitching.
- Using a stitch ripper, completely remove the fly shield and zipper tape making sure to not make a hole in the jeans or remove any of the fly topstitching.
- Now your jeans will have a separated front crotch seam and partial separated back crotch seam.
- Starting on the back, overlap the back crotch points so that the seam lays flat. Pin. Make sure that the overlapped back piece is the one with the topstitching. Note: If the corner point is bulky, you can stitch rip the excess fabric from the flat-felled seam.
- Following over the existing topstitching, stitch the back jeans overlap and underlap together pivoting at the crotch point.
- Press the back pants and then trim the excess fabric on the wrong side of the skirt, about 1/2” away from the seam.
- In front of a mirror, wrap the skirt around your body and pin to a comfortable tightness. Make sure to pin or mark your button placement (around the area of the hip pocket), the location where the underlap meets the waistband (for the snap), and the front crotch curve so it is lying flat. You may want to have someone help you do this and always be careful when pinning a garment while you are wearing it! While you have the skirt on, make sure to also mark your desired hem length.
- Pin or mark a spot on the fly front where you can stitch to above the original bar tack, and you are also able to get in and out of the skirt with ease. Carefully remove the skirt leaving in as many pins as possible – you may need to use safety pins. Note: For new sewists, a bar tack or bartack is a high-density stitch located on areas of jeans to provide extra reinforcement, similar to rivets.
- Before top stitching the front crotch curve, serge or zig-zag finish the underlapped crotch curve that doesn’t have the fly stitching on it.
- Starting at your established point on the front, topstitch the fronts together going over existing seams pivoting at the corner.
- Note your marked hemline and measure along both side seams to achieve the same length and cut skirt. Then open pant legs and draw a line from your front inseam pin to your back inseam pin for cutting along the hemline.
- From the wrong side of the front skirt, trim the excess fabric.
- Hand sew a new button at marked location, and stitch snap to top corner of underlap and corresponding location on the inside of the front waistband.
- For the hem, you can choose to leave it raw and further fray the edges, or you can press and topstitch. If your skirt is too short with the hem openings, you can use excess fabric from the pant legs to stitch in an insert.
