Recycled Jean Skirt

As the girls and I went school shopping this year, we found these skirts(which were in style when I was a young girl) in a name-brand store, that looked very similar to this one for $22, and I thought…”Hey, what a great idea to recycle their jeans with holes in the knees!!” I know, impressive thinking huh!! So…..on our way home, we stopped at Wal-Mart, grabbed some fabric (they have pre-cut pieces for a dollar, so we grabbed two pieces per skirt.) We then came home and pulled out their jeans, picked out a pair that was pretty warn out, and took it all to the sewing table.

The first item on my list was to cut the jeans right across the crotch area. I don’t know a nicer way to say that, so there you go. I laid the jeans flat, and just by eyeballing it (not measuring for evenness) cut the jeans straight across, right where the legs meet together at the top. Next, I took the fabric my daughter picked out for two dollars, and I sewed the two separate pieces together, with right sides facing one another. I am not even sure if you can see that in the picture, but you hopefully get the idea.  Then, I sewed a small hem on the bottom of the fabric, by folding it up twice and then running a straight stitch through it.  Following that, I sewed a seam at the top of the fabric, and when finished I pulled on the bottom thread and gathered the fabric that way.  Nothing too complicated.   After the fabric portion of the skirt was prepped and ready to go, I turned it inside out, so right sides were touching again, and then placed the jeans, right side up, inside the fabric portion of the skirt.  I then proceeded sewing the two sections of the skirt together (the jean to the fabric.)  This is one of those moments where a Serger would have been so awesome to have, however, even though I didn’t have one at the time, I have one now, and it will be so great to use it during my next sewing expedition!!

So, this is how the skirt turned out, and it was cute, just not exactly what we had in mind.It seemed so darn long.

My daughter asked me if I could make it a little shorter (not a mini skirt), but a little bit shorter so I did it, and then resewed the hem and it turned out even better than the long one.

Our middle girly girl requested her own, so I made one more and she adores it as well!!  What a great idea!