Jean Skirt Remake

This is my new FAVORITE sewing project.  I don't know about you, but I love to go to yard sales and thrift stores to find clothes for my girls.  I prefer to purchase their play clothes used, since we play hard at our home, and wear out clothes quickly.  As a renaissance woman I am drawn to things that I can do and create.  This is one of those projects! 

Now, I want to teach you all how to make one.  This tutorial is for someone that knows their way around a sewing machine, not someone without prior knowledge of sewing. 
First step is to pick out a pair of blue jeans to fit your child, a chunk of material that matches the denim, ribbon or rick rack for trim and matching thread. 

These are the pants that I chose, and the material that I used was of a similar theme.  You start by cutting off the pants above the crotch, making sure to avoid the pockets and zipper. 

Then you measure the width of the jeans.  I try to cut my skirt pieces about twice as long as the denim is wide.  I like to cut the fabric strips for the skirt at 6" tall.  So for this skirt, it was about 11" wide, so I cut two strips of fabric that were 6x22".

At this point you will put the two strips right sides together and stitch up the sides, making a tube. I use the combination straight and zig-zag stitch for this. 

Next I hem the skirt.  Pick the bottom of your skirt and roll the hem so that the raw edge is completely concealed and straight stitch around the top of the rolled part.

Next you will need to gather the top.  The easiest way that I know of to do this is to sew around the top of the skirt with a really long, loose straight stitch like this:

Start right beside one of the seams and sew all the way around the top, do not knot the thread or reverse.  I pull slightly to stretch the stitches even further apart.  The next step is to pull lightly on the thread that is on the wrong side of the skirt (the inside)  and this will gather the material.  Just keep pulling the thread and spreading out the gathers.  You will do this until the skirt size matches the width of the skirt.

Next you will take the skirt (still inside out) and slide it over the denim.  This will put the two raw edges together, and the right side of the finished skirt together.  I then use the combination straight/zig zag stitch to sew around the edge.  If you don't have this stitch, I would use a straight stitch, and then a zig zag closer to the outside edge. 

You are almost done!  Next you will need to flip the skirt out right, so that it is laying how it will when worn.  I like to put either ribbon or rick-rack around the seam, to disguise if it is not perfect.  For this skirt I choose this rainbow rick-rack, and I just straight stitch threw the center, trying to line it up right over the seam.

Over lap your rick-rack slightly, to not have any raw edges showing.  If I use ribbon, I straight stitch around the top and the bottom of the ribbon. 

There you have it!  An easy project that looks adorable, and uses those jeans that are worn, or too small! 

Up tomorrow we will try to get some cooking in!