Jeans to jean skirt

This weekend's quick project involved a pair of jeans that I couldn't wear anymore due to fairly significant tearing/wear in the inner thighs. (I can't tell if this is because of how I walk or because the pants were too tight to begin with, or a combination of both.) I've been able to patch other pairs of jeans this has happened to, but this pair was really lightweight denim -- a fancy brand that I'd won a pair of in a Lucky Magazine giveaway. So pants I'd gotten for free, but also nice enough that I didn't want to toss them due to irreparable crotch problems. So, I decided to make them into a skirt, with inspiration from this tutorial.

I ripped the seams up the inner legs all the way up, then cut off the legs partway up. I then cut out the extra fabric in the inner thighs that had been torn and worn. The fabric from the lower legs got used to fill the triangular gaps in the middle.

Here's the work in progress. You can see the folds on the bottom of the leg piece from where I'd hemmed up (and not cut) the jeans when I first got them! The detail I particularly like here is how I was able to match the seam down the middle of the lower leg piece (which used to be the the outside of the leg) with the seam down the middle of the back. (I did this on the front as well). I top-stitched everything using a thread that decently matched the stitching already present on the jeans.


And here's the finished, hemmed piece! A little bit wrinkled in odd places... you can slightly tell that these used to be jeans, especially as there's no triangular panels on the sides. (I saw some tutorials that did that, but those looked more complicated than I wanted to bother with for this skirt.) But it's a really comfortable skirt, especially because the denim is fairly light and soft, and I'll definitely get some more use out of it this way.


Here it is again from the side. All the nice cut and complicated details of jeans in the waist and hips, with the comfort of a skirt.

Quick refashion

So this quick refashion came from me going through my closet and pulling out some stuff that I really haven't worn in ages. The Wardrobe Refashion challenge has officially begun, so time to get some refashioning in before I travel most of next week.

This started out as a long velvet skirt given to me years ago by a friend cleaning out her closet who thought of me because of the fabric. (I'm a big fan of velvet.) I loved the color and the fabric, and wore the skirt a few times, but found that the skirt was pretty unflattering. It's a little too tight on me, has slits so far up both sides that I'm a bit uncomfortable, and drapes in such a way as to make me look pregnant (which I'm certainly not).























I realized I hadn't worn the skirt in a few years, but still loved the fabric. And thus...time to make it into a quick stretch velvet top! I used another stretch shirt for the pattern, then just cut into the skirt, matching hems so that I wouldn't have to hem the bottom of the shirt. This is what was left of the skirt afterwards...






















I sewed up the sides, left the neckline and sleeves unfinished because the knit velvet isn't unraveling (I call it a slightly deconstructed look; maybe it really just is lazy), and called it a new shirt.






















And you know what? It just so happens to match a skirt that I'd made a couple of days ago out of a bit of the fabric I picked up from the Gilbert and Sullivan players.






















So... skirt I didn't wear to shirt I hopefully will! (maybe not till it hits fall again, though.)