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! 

No Knead Bread

I have been searching for ever it seems to find the perfect bread recipe. I found one for my bread machine, it makes lovely light whole wheat bread that is great for sammiches. The downside? It takes four hours and thirty eight minutes. Which is fine, but you know, sometimes, life gets in the way. Sometimes, I wake up late and don't have four hours before we need to eat. I know, I know, first world problems. But problems nonetheless. So I came across this "peasant bread" that you don't knead and I'll be honest, I was skeptical. I thought, this is going to come out as dense as a rock and will taste like crap.
Boy was I wrong. Like...more wrong than I could have imagined. This bread is light, fluffy and comes out with a crunchy dense crust like you wouldn't believe. Best part is, it takes about 5 minutes to mix, another 30 to rise, 5 minutes to put into pans, 30 min for the second rise and 40 min for the bake. So, total of 1 hour and 50 minutes, which officially makes it the fastest ever yeast bread I've made. We've used it for sandwiches, french toast, toasted toast, and just plain eating with a dinner. Everyone loves it! And with almost no work, I can make this every day. I still make the bread machine bread, just not as often.
Now, something to remember, this bread calls for quite a bit of water. It's going to look and feel pretty sticky. That's completely normal. It really does use 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of flour. Just trust in the recipe. :)

What you'll need:

• 4 cups of unbleached unbrominated flour
• 2 cups of water
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP of coconut or similar oil
• 2 tsp of instant yeast (I use 2.25 tsp of yeast because we're high up in altitude)

What you'll do:

1. Mix together water, sugar, salt and oil.
2. Add in flour and yeast, mix well. You can just sort of "fold it over" with a spatula. Its too thick to mix with a spoon and too thin to pick up with your hands.
3. Let sit for 30-45 minutes until doubled in size, then punch down and separate in half.
4. Transfer each half to a greased bread pan, I like to use the glass ones, they transfer heat a bit more evenly, but metal would work too. Try to use a smaller pan, no larger than a 1.5 lb loaf.
5. Let sit for about 30 min until doubled again. Preheat your oven to 375 and bake for 35-40 minutes.
6. PROFIT.

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Pumpkin Scones

Winter is coming.

And it's true isn't it! You can't throw a rock without hitting something pumpkin flavored. Believe it or not, I'm actually not a fan of pumpkin. I don't like pumpkin pie, I sure as hell don't like pumpkin drinks. But! I love Pumpkin Scones. Probably because I've not yet met a scone I don't like. Or...a pastry of any kind for that matter. I do have an unnatural affection for baked goods.....

Anyway. So this recipe. Hands down, best pumpkin scone I've ever had. Of course, my little secret, which I guess won't be so secret now is to use half hard white wheat, and half pastry wheat. The pastry wheat makes it light and fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth goodness, while the white wheat keeps it from blowing away in a hard wind. Topped with a super easy spiced glaze, you'll be making these all the time. 

What you'll need: 

Scones: 

1 cup white wheat flour

1 cup pastry flour

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground ginger 

6 tbsp of super cold butter

½ cup of pureed pumpkin

3 tbsp of milk 

1 large egg

Spiced Glaze: 

1¼ cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp of pumpkin pie spice

What you'll do: 

1.  Preheat oven to 425º. Grease or line baking sheet. 
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a large bowl. use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are left, set aside. 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into into a 1 inch thick rectangle, about three times as long as it is wide. Use a pizza cutter to slice dough into three sections the short way, then two sections the long way. Cut each square in half diagonally. Place triangles on sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes or until light brown. Cool on wire rack. 
4. When scones have cooled, mix the glaze and drizzle over scones. 
5. PROFIT. 

Delicious Apple Crisp

So what do you do when you have 250lbs of apples? Why you make apple crisp of course. And applesauce. And apple butter. And stewed apples....and....well you get the idea. 

This is one of our favorite desserts. Every year we not so patiently wait for the apples to ripen so we can eat this delicious dish. Give it a whirl and I bet you'll love it too! The best part is that if you can your apples in just water (peel, then slice, the waterbath in just water, or a light syrup), you can cut the cook time to 30 minutes  The whole house smells yummy for days after making this!

What you'll need: 

10 medium cored, sliced and peeled apples 

1 TBS of white wheat flour

1 cup of granulated raw sugar

½ cup of water 

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

½ tsp of nutmeg

1 cup of quick oats

1 cup of packed brown sugar

¼ tsp of baking powder

¼ tsp of baking soda

½ cup coconut oil or melted butter

What you'll do

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease your 9x13 pan with butter or lard so the apples don't stick. Slice, peel and core your apples and lay them down in the bottom of the pan

2. Mix together tablespoon flour and sugar. Sprinkle evenly over apples. Pour the half cup of water evenly over the apples. If you've canned your apples, you can omit the water. 

3. Mix together spices, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and coconut oil. Sprinkle that evenly over the top of your apples. 

4. Bake at 350º for 45 min. If you're using canned apples, you can reduce that time to 30 minutes. 

5. OMNOMNOM and enjoy!