Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Jean skirt makeover

I did love this skirt once upon a time!



I had the timer on my camera set and Kayla came running over so I went ahead and picked her up for the picture. Any ways. The slit just went too high so about 5 years ago I had my mom fix it for me. That was pre-sewing days for me. The slit was coming undone again and I just wanted it to be different. SO I FIXED IT! This only took me a little over an hour from start to finish. This isn't really a tutorial but I am basically just showing you what I did in case you want to try it out.

First things first is you have to figure out where you want to skirt to be. I knew I wanted to use the part I cut off as a ruffle so I made sure that I had enough fabric to do so before I cut off the length. Then I sewed the slit closed.



The I took the left over fabric and hemmed the part I cut off. That way there was a hem on both long ends. Then I folded it in half length wise and cut it down the middle. Now you should have two long strips that are hemmed on one side.





Hopefully that made sense NOW I took the skirt and the extra fabric and pinned it on right sides facing each other. Before I started, I lined up the middle of the ruffle to the middle of the skirt. Also, I knew the ruffle that I hemmed myself didn't look as good so I made sure to put that one in the back of the skirt. Line the middle up on both the skirt and the ruffle you are going to sew on.



The start pinning the ruffles. I was lazy and didn't measure. This actually made more work for me probably because a couple of times I ended up with not enough fabric at the end. After I did the first side of one ruffle I got smart and on the second ruffle I pinned the sides down BEFORE I did the ruffles. In other words, the middle was pinned and the sides were pinned, but the ruffles were not done yet. This way I knew how much fabric I had left at all times.

Also I made sure the ruffles were going in different directions on either side so it laid better.



Now you have to make a decision about your sides. I decided it would be easier ( and cuter ) if the sides were open. So mine looked liked this where the seems met



Once the whole thing is pinned it should look like this



Since jeans fray pretty easily the first thing I did was do a zigzag stitch around the whole bottom of the ruffle. Then I did a straight stitch on top of ( but not over lapping ) the zig zag. This was just to keep it from fraying more then necessary. Then you can try it on and admire how much sexier you look in a shorter, sassier skirt!





I love how shorter, sexier and sassier meant my ankles were showing! HAHA



After re-reading this I am not good at explaining myself. If there is a specific part you don't understand ask me and I will be sure to answers any questions you have! The hardest part about this was just pinning the dumb ruffles. That took the longest of all so don't be afraid and if you aren't wearing your skirt any ways ( like me ) then what do you have to lose?!

2 comments:

dawnmercedes said...

oh! I have a favorite denim skirt...now if I could just fit into it to do this! haha Your make over is wonderful!

Katie said...

Dawn, I JUST finally was able to fit into this one after my second baby and she is 14 months old now! haha so know what you mean. Thanks for the compliment. Now if only I could get into my clothes I fi into before kids period! That would be a miracle :)

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