hi, i'm new to the board. so maybe this question has been answered before. but i'd like to make a below the knee length skirt out of an old pair of jeans that i don't wear anymore. could someone help me out, or perhaps point me in the right direction.

http://www.stylesalon.com/stylefile/StSalonProject1261.html

theres a link i found on glitter. do a search, there were about 5000 threads about this at one point.

welcome to the board!

http://www.makingfriends.com/jean_skirt.htm


I got that link from http://jovigirl.com/cgi-bin/links/pages/Skirts/
which is a great site run by rio.

--punky

wow, funny I should read this tonight, just after pinning together a jean skirt of my own!

The first one i made i just kind of improvised: i cut the jeans off at the length i wanted, cut the inside seams apart and just sewed in a triangle of red flowery fabric on both sides of the skirt. i left all the edges raw so it would fray. now of course it is falling apart.

the skirt i'm making now is going to be a little more fancy, with ribbon and lace trim. and i'm using the extra leg that i cut off for the middle this time. Good luck!

Thanks for the mention Punky! :o)

You're the best,
Rio

i just finished making my fav skirt. i make denim and cordoroy(sp?) skirts a lot, so i have a lot of tricks down. the one i just finished, i made our of a pair of jeans that had a hole in the butt, so i had to get rid of that. what i did was:
take our the stiching around the bottom of the waistband, and detach it from the rest of the pants. then i cut off the legs from the crotch, and shortened them to around the length i wanted. then, i took out the stiching in the seams that did not have the stiching showing(for visual purposes) i sewed these endges together, adding a bit mor denim in between, but i sewed these on the outside, so that down the side of the jeans is a frayed fringe.then, just sew the waistband back on, belt loops and all. you may also want to add a zipper, because it's to hard to get on.
i also found the cooles thing at fabricland, Denim thread! it's a special gold coloured, heavy duty, thread that looks like the kind they use a lot on jeans now.
i hope that wasn't too confusing......

I'm bumping this to ask: I'm going to make one of these. The question is if it will fit. The jeans are a nice stretch pair from Express that I have outgrown. I think that the problem is in the thigh area, and not exactly in the waistband. So I'm wondering (out loud) if the skirt will fit. I mean, obviously the tight thighs won't matter, 'cause it'll be a skirt. But there's no way I can tell if the waist will fit until the skirt is done, and I am using a very cool heavy-duty vintage fabric for the insets, and I don't want to waste it on a skirt that won't fit.
SO...anyone have experience with making their skirt out of jeans that were once too tight? (Or has everyone else made theirs out of jeans that were were too loose?)
Thanks a lot,
p

(edited for some clarity)

penrose:

if you are making jeans into a skirt, it won't affect the waist at all. the only way to make the pants bigger would be to put rectangular insets down the sides of the skirt, say, two inches plus seam allowance on either side. how you would do this, if it's what you want: take out the side seams with a seam ripper, or carefully cut them out. it would be cool if you didn't have a waistband, otherwise you'll have to cut through that, too, somehow.

then cut two rectangular pieces of fabric about 2 inches (or whatever size you'd like, to make the pants the size you wish) wide, plus seam allowance, and make the length the same as the length of the skirt. if you want, you can finish the top edge, and leave enough length to make sure it reaches the length of the skirt you're putting them into. sew the long sides of each rectangle, one side to the front, one side to the back, on either side of the skirt. finish the seams inside somehow so they don't fray *too* much.

you could use denim from the legs that you might have cut off, or you could use other fabric, but make sure it's pretty stable (strong).

does this make sense? maybe this wasn't something you had in mind, but i thought i'd mention it, since the waist won't change doing it the other way. :)

let me know if you have any other questions.

take care,
tricia>http://www.dollieclothing.com

Hello! Here are a few more how tos which came after this thread was originally posted.

Reconstructed jean skirt at melimade:>http://melimade.fuzzyspaceoutpost.com/diyreconstructed.html

I put up a list of how to links and pictures of my own experiment here:>http://megan.scatterbrain.org/notmartha/tomake/jeanskirt.html

The jeans I used were also fine in the waist and hips, but tight in the thighs, if that helps you out any. But I am going to redo the front of mine and add a panel of fabric there, the way I made them is a tad difficult to walk quickly in.

Tricia is right, you shouldn't need to take the waistband off at all.

Good luck! and don't be afriad to rip those suckers apart if you know you won't wear them anyway.

yes, everyone is so right around here. the waist size of the finished skirt will be exactly the same size as the jeans were to begin with. the whole thing will fit just like the pants did, until about the point at the crotch where the legs come together. so, if your pants do not fit at all through the waist and hips, you will not be a happy camper when you make your skirt. if they fit fine and it's just like a half-inch's worth of pinch through the thigh, then you'll be fine and should have no qualms using the vintage fabric. good luck! (and be sure to do a search for all the old threads for more help. searches are good. )

april

edited to add: in answer to your other question, yes, i made my jean skirt out of stretchy jeans that were too big. they were a little roomy in the crotch, as kevin arnold's mom says in that one wonder year's episode. as pants, they made me look like a had a huge package. as a skirt, they look normal.

Thanks, everybody! I'll probably post the results when it is finished.

you can always cut up the jeans up the inseams, and then try it on. it'll look wierd, but then you can see if the waist issue will be solved.

OK, I'm feeling very unGlittery right now.

Attempt #2 to make jean skirt is going straight to hell. Again. There's just too much room in the butt and nowhere to put it. Either I cut and pin all the way to the waist band and it's so tight I can't sit down or I become Little Miss PointyAss. I'm trying to make the skirt more fitted than usual, sort of A line, but no matter where I cut and try to refit, it goes pear-shaped. Literally. There's always extra fabric hanging off somewhere. Ideas?

re: room in the butt area:

make sure you take the seams out on the front crotch underneath the zipper, and take out the seams on the back, about to the center of where the pockets are, approximately. on both the front *and* the back, fold the side that looks more finished (like the fabric is folded under, instead of over) over the other side, and pin. try it on. if the butt still has room, take a little more out of the butt seam, going towards the waist. do so until the butt lies flat, and is comfortable for you.

then you cut the triangles of fabric or jean to fill the openings, leaving a seam allowance, and sew, going all the way up to the zipper area in the front, and up to where the stitching remains on the back (if any).

questions?

-tricia

ok, I am finished with the seam ripping. First I ripped both legs up to the crotch and then tried it on to see if it would fit at that stage. (I got impatient) It..uh..didn't. So then I finished ripping the seams all the way across, and yay! It fits! Now I have to fix the point in the back (I didn't get one in the front, and I don't think I'll need a flap there. We'll see.) and sew in the panels. Which I have yet to cut out. And pre-shrink. Darn. Anyway, the zipper now zips, where it couldn't before.

OMG i just threw all my old jeans out! DAMN!
hehehe now i can't wait till i grow out of my new ones ;)
just curious - could you get some old jeans from a thrift shop and then just make a skirt? hmmm that would probably be good and kind of cheaper... in a way..
*cass*

cass:

you could totally get a cool pair of jeans from the thrift to do this with..that's what i did with all the skirts i have made like this...looked around and found the coolest jeans @ the thrift that i could find. most thrifts have used levi's...they make the best jean skirts, imo, but any are good as long as *you* like them. :)

take care,
tricia>http://www.dollieclothing.com

I recently made a knee lenght demin skirt. I'm proud of it cuz its not the typical one where the jean legs are visible with different fabric inbetween. I cut the legs off of the top (techincal terms over here!) like I was making cutoffs, the I slit the legs up the side without the really bulky seams. then I sewed then together. So the side seams off the skirt look all well made and the lame home sewed ones are almost invisible in the middle. I made mine out of obscenely stretchy jeans, so zippers weren't a problem, but it looks like one could be added easily. Anyway, that was pretty incomprehensible, sorry!