Tuesday's Tute: Jeans to a Skirt

I'll get a modeled shot soon.

First, we've reached 75 followers. Yeah! Thank you for watching and reading at SquigglyTwigs Designs. Our winner is Chosen of the Lord. I don't have an email for her, but hopefully she'll see this post and reply. Chosen of the Lord please email me before next Tuesday, squigglytwigsdesigns@yahoo.com to name and claim your free e-pattern.

Now on to Tuesday's Tute:

Today I'm sharing with you a skirt tutorial that I first learned about in a library book on repurposing jeans. It's a fun, and versatile skirt. Choose the length and fabric(s). We used scraps and made our's on the long side. You could even add a trim band or ruffle to the bottom. One of the skirts we made we hemmed, the other two we zigzagged and then left them to fray some.

Materials: Jeans, fabric, sewing tools, embellishments (optional)

Directions:

Step 1: Take out the inseam and some of the crotch seam. I take out the crotch seam up to the zipper in the front, and an equal amount in the back. (This pair did not have a zipper. I looked at a pair that did and took out about that much.) It need not be exact.

The goal is to take as much crotch seam out as needed to get the pieces to cross and lay nicely and get the skirt angle you want.

Usually jeans rip out easily. Just snip a few threads and then pull the seam apart. It can be quite dusty....

Remove excess threads.

Step 2: Cross the (usually top stitched piece) over the non-topstitched piece to make sure it will lay like you want and your skirt angle is what you're looking for.

Step 3: Lay fabrics out to get the look you'd like.

Step 4: If using more than one fabric, sew them together to create one piece.

Step 5: Zigzag raw edges to prevent future fraying. Then press down 1/4" on all of the edges. Some of your edges may already lay nicely and be ready to sew. No need to press those.

Step 6: It's helpful to have a large flat place to do this part.

Lay the fabric under the front side. Lay jean edges down like you want them to be. When there is a topstitched edge, I put that one on top.

Pin down.

Just make sure you don't pin the front and back layers together. If you have something (like a cutting mat) to place between the front and back it may help keep the layers flat without pining through to the back. Also pin the extra fabric edges to the jean leg. This will keep them from getting caught up when you sew. I tried cutting the piece to fit first, but it's better to use larger pieces and make sure they all lay flat, sew, then cut them off.

Step 7: Sew along the edge of the jeans, removing pins as you go. It can be tricky to sew this area and keep track of all the other jean parts, especially when making a longer skirt. Just go slow. We used a tension for heavy fabrics and a 3.5 stitch length. Also, a new, sharp, machine needle helps.

Step 8: Finish bottom edge with either a hem or a zigzag. Turn the skirt inside out and trim off excess fabric. To prevent fraying on the trimmed edges, you can zigzag them or use fray check or use fray check (that's what we did).

Enjoy your "new" skirt!

Happy Sewing!

Debbie