Friday, July 24, 2009

What Once Was a Cute Pair of Jeans...

...is now an adorable jean skirt. (Hopefully Rebecca will agree!) I found a tutorial on turning a pair of jeans into a skirt and just had to give it a try. I found these jeans at the Goodwill and knew they were the perfect pair to convert. I should have taken a picture of the jeans before I cut them, but let's face it: we all know what jeans look like! The little green turtle was actually on the back of one of the legs near the bottom. Step 1. Cut legs off to the length you want the skirt to be, plus hem if you plan on turning a hem. Step 2. Remove all stitches of inner leg with thread ripper from bottom of zipper to just under back yoke. Step 3. Pin together and fill in the triangle with scraps from the legs that you cut off.


View of the back. You will have to decide how far up the back you need to go with your thread ripper. I stopped just below the yoke to get it all to lay smooth. In the future, I would probably not have such a defined curve (backwards J). I would probably tuck it in a bit more to meet closer to the top of the triangle insert.


Step 4. Sew the new seams. I used a serger type stitch that overlapped the width of the old stitching. You could just do a double row of stitches similar to what you removed. (Most jeans have a double row of yellow/orange stitching) I was very happy with how this looked.


Step 5. Hem. I decided to do the same stitch around the bottom and will just let it fray a bit in the wash. You can do whatever kind of hem you wish.

Finished view of the back.


And the front. (Please ignore the two water spots from my iron. Yeah, I know you wouldn't have even noticed them if I hadn't mentioned it.) I went ahead and put in an order for a new iron from Santa. aka: hubby. Voila! A jean skirt for less than $4.00!


I'm crossing my fingers hoping that number 1, the skirt fits (Rebecca is away at camp) and number 2, that she actually likes it! If she doesn't, I guess I'll have my 2nd skirt give-away on my blog!

10 comments:

Eileen said...

I always thought to try it but never did that was when my girls were growing up. So it has been out for quite some time. I think it is a neat idea. How did you put the other charecters on? Thanks for sharing.

Allana Martian said...

Eileen, the jeans came with the characters already on them. That's why I thought they would make a cute skirt. ;-)

Anonymous said...

awsome job Allana, I used to take Austin's out grown cover alls and turn them into little jumpers for you. love mom

Sarah said...

This is an amazing skirt! I love the animals. I've got to try this for my daughter :) (First I need to learn how to sew)...

Tracy said...

I am impressed ... you are "sew" crafty (and, do I really need to tell you I totally just cracked myself up?!)

Jennifer McGregor said...

... if only I could sew. Adorable!

David and April said...

That is awesome that you have the knack to do that! Not only cute, but nice on the pocketbook!! Way to go!!

carla said...

Awesome job. I'm sure Rebecca will love them-if she doesn't I'll take them anyday for Andrea.

Laurie said...

You're a genius. I only sew quilts and have always wished I could sew clothes! Looks great!

Unknown said...

So, did it fit? Did she like it? So many questions! I'm sure she did. Melissa would love it! I just may have to hit the Goodwill on Wed. and look for a .99 pair of jeans to try it out on. You did a great job!