Re-using old jeans in your wardrobe to save money!

Using Jeans to make a skirt- Part 1

I have been doing a personal challenge this week and let's just say wearing skirts is the main concept. I don't have that many of them, so I am finding it challenging to have variety of different outfits for the whole week. I remember seeing someone take a pair of old jeans and turn then into a skirt. I decided to try it and hope that I inspire another beginning seamstress to jump right in and not be afraid of her sewing machine! I have only a project or two under my belt (and really simple ones at that) so the sewing part will be the most difficult for me. I will put the next part up in the coming days as I get the skirt done...but give me some time k? LOL

First you need to find yourself a pair of old jeans, make sure they still fit you on the waist, but too short (can anyone say THATS what I can do with those highwaters!) or too tight in the thighs is fine too ;) You'll be making the skirt wider so it'll fit! The waist NEEDS to fit because we are not going to alter it.


I then measured where I wanted to cut them and tried to cut both sides the same..lol.


Keep those bottoms of the pants...your gonna need them:

Then take your seam ripper (happens to be my bff) and rip the seams of the inside legs of both sides of the jeans...almost to the zipper, but not quite. If you are working on a pair of levi's like I was, know that you'll be doing this all day it'll take some time...this is what you end up with...the jeans/skirt now should lay flat.


Then take those legs that you cut off and try to fit them to fill in the gaps, if they don't you can grab another old pair of jeans or some fabric and make a triangle (I may have to acutally do this as mine seem to be too short for the back of my skirt now that I am trying to sew it) This is how it will look:


You'll need to pin the triangle in place.....I will post pics of this in the second part of this tutorial when I have the finished product!

Let me know if you are going to make one and if you have any helpful tips!