How to turn Jeans into a skirt!

You know what I hate? Jeans that don't fit. Can anyone find them that do? Who are the jeans made for? I look for jeans made for "curvy" people, as I've got an arse that's completely not in proportion to the rest of me, and the waist gaps. I find some that fit in the hips and rear only to find that when I bend over, I'm giving off quite the show. You get them to fit in the waist and hips and find out that the thighs are as constricting as a boa.....Right. Jeans that fit. Oxymoron.

You know what I love? Skirts. Especially in the winter, and especially denim. Denim skirts allow me to be rough and tough around the house, but still have the benefit of a skirt. I bend over and show nothing. No strange breezes on my nether regions. Throw on a pair of cable knit tights and you'll be much warmer than when wearing pants, and with the weather we're having as of late, that's a blessing.

Now, know what else I don't like? Well, number one that it's hard to find denim skirts. You can check your local thrift shops, but if they are like mine, there was one skirt, and it was actually 2 sizes too big, so I was able to take it in, but sheesh! What's a girl need to do to find a decent skirt? Oh, what's that you say? Hit the jeans rack? Why yes! I think I will.

You can find jeans for like $3 a pair or less at most thrift shops. I prefer ones that have a bit of stretch in the denim because Im always crawling around or bending over doing things here at the homestead. I went to my closet first though because I had 2 pairs that I knew fit me, but the fits were all wrong, and so I turned one of them into a skirt this morning. Now, you'll need 2 pairs of jeans to make one skirt. Or, you can use fabric in the "holes" that you'll need to fill up if you want to recycle some fabric and the jeans at the same time. I prefer all denim because I need the warmth factor, but I will probably make some with quilting fabric for in the summer.

So, onto the tute! Now, you'll need some basic sewing skills, like how to sew a straight line, and a zig zag stitch (unless you have a serger). You'll need pins, thread, and scissors. Seriously it's that easy. I didn't even need to change out needles. I just used a simple size 80 needle.

So now you want to open up the inseams. All the way. Just take a seam ripper if you have one and open them up being careful not to rip the denim. You know, like I did.

Jeans after the inseam has been ripped. 

Front side of the old  jeans.

Opening up the front crotch. 

The next thing you'll need to do is to open up the crotch a bit and lay it flat. This is better explained by the photo below. Just rip the seams until the jeans will lay flat in the crotch. Then pin it down. You'll be sewing this down later.

Backside of the old jeans.

Then you'll need to get your fabric to fill this hole that's made by the legs being opened up. I chose to cut up another pair of jeans I wasn't using (guess what! They didn't fit right. Shocking). So I just cut off the legs, you know, just like how we did when we were in the 80's and wore our jean cutoff's except this time, you're going to discard the cutoff jeans shorts and use the legs. So open the legs up. You don't need to rip the seam, you can simply cut them open.

Denim fabric is underneath the old jeans. 

Lay out your opened leg under the hole of the denim soon to be skirt. Then just pin it up. Simply walk over to your machine now and stitch the fabric together. Then turn the skirt over and do the same for the back. You'll need to open the crotch a lot more in the back to get it to lay flat.

Pin up along the seams where you're going to sew. 

Turn it inside out and trim excess fabric. 

Now, just sew up the old seams tacking the jeans and the jean fabric (the leg you used from the other jeans or the fabric you're using) together. Turn it inside out and trim the seams. You can serge or zig zag the seams here together if you like.

Trim your hem to be equal all the way around. 

Once you're done with this, you now have a

skirt. Albeit one that is in dire need of hemming. I suggest trying it on and seeing about how much you want to take off. I like long skirts, so I just trimmed the fabric to be all even, then took off an inch.

Serge or zig zag your hem so that you can simply fold up and tack down. 

Hop on over to your serger, or sewing machine (with the stitch set to zig zag) and stitch your hem up. This will allow you to simply fold over your hem once, which is easier and creates less bulk, and is easier on your machine to stitch as well. I put a double stitch on the hem, which can be achieved by either changing the needle position and going around twice or by using a double needle and 2 spools of thread. I was too lazy to put in the double needle though, so I just went around twice.

Fold over and pin up your hem. 

Tack down with a single running stitch. 

I've added a double running stitch here for extra durability cause Im hard on things. :) 

Now! You have a skirt! And the best part? This type of denim skirt doesn't need slits in the sides or back. I've been wearing it all morning and have been cleaning and what not, and I've had enough room to move around without any issue!

You can see the finished product here, ignore my giant sweater, it's like 63° in this house. I love how flouncy it is!

Ignore the paint drops on the bottom of my mirror. I'm a sloppy painter.
See how cool this looks! I love that it doesn't need slits!