Hi everyone it’s Cindy here to tell you about another crafty thing I’ve been up to in the past couple months. A while ago Miss N, a younger member of the knitting and crocheting group I belong to, put out a call to action on Facebook looking for someone that could help her convert some jeans she had to skirts. Miss N is working towards her Doctor of Ministry degree. For her internship this year she is working at a university interfaith chapel where she interacts with people of many faiths. In keeping with the preferences of certain religions Miss N wanted to be able to have some long skirts to wear for work. Other than formal wear there wasn’t much she could find in the stores to fulfill her requirements so she was hoping she could convert a couple pair of jeans to skirts.
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Blue Gradient Jeans Skirt (click image for full detail) |
If you are of a certain age like I am you might remember making these as a youngster. Back in the seventies it was cool to turn your jeans into skirts. We usually did them short and were able to use the bottom of the legs for the filler piece. Since Miss N wanted the skirts to be long I had to find fabric to fill in the center area.
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Jungle Batik Jeans Skirt (click image for full detail) |
Miss N came to my home and we looked through my fabric stash to see what would work well. With a little help from Charlie we decided on the two batik fabrics you see above. Now I’ll show you how I transformed a couple pair of jeans to the skirts.
The first thing you have to do is rip open the inseams and the center crotch seam of the pants.
Then you adjust the front and back center seams so they lay flat and re-sew them.
In order to fill the open area I had to make a pattern for the front and the back. I have a large roll of drawing paper that I placed under the legs and then drew a line to mark the edge. If you look close you can see that the paper was folded in half. After I drew the initial line I folded the paper in half and then adjusted the pattern to be the same shape on both halves. I also had to add about a half inch for a seam allowance. I then traced the shapes to the fabric.
Since batik fabric is fairly light weight I decided to add a little heft to the center areas. I used a thin muslin for backing and a very light weight batting and then did some quilting to hold all of it together. The truth is I let my embroidery machine do the quilting.
If you look closely in the picture above you can see the line I drew on the fabric from the patterns I made.
On the light colored skirt I used a paisley style of quilting.
You can see the pattern on the reverse side better. For each paisley I had to re-position the embroidery hoop. There were about 10 on each side. I used a dark blue thread that blended well with the fabric.
For the jungle batik I used a quilt design that had butterflies and flowers and quilted it in a dark green thread.
I fit each block of quilting together so most of the fabric was quilted.
After the quilting was done I cut the front and backs out. Then it was just a matter of pinning them in place and sewing them to the jeans. The final step was to fit and sew the hem. I’m happy to say that Miss N was very excited to get her new skirts.
While I don’t have a picture of Miss N in her skirts my super model Walter was more than happy to pose with them for me. I was glad I could help out a friend with this project and didn’t ask for anything in return but Miss N insisted on compensating me and gave me a gift card for one of the eateries where our knitting/crochet group meets. Thanks Miss N I was happy to help you out on this fun project.
These came out lovely Cindy! What a wonderful project. I really don’t do much clothing sewing anymore, but it doesn’t mean I don’t admire it. I also think it is neat that Miss N was trying to be respectful in her internship. Good for her. Looks like you had some fun creating these too. Sam
That takes me back a few years! Nicely done, Cindy!!! I like the quilting part to make it more the consistency of the denim.
I had that skirt in college!! Probably the last time I sewed anything! I love the quilting.
Great Job Cindy! I think it is terrific you had fun while helping out a friend. You are very talented!
Wow, that is great Miss Cindy 🙂 xooxx
Mollie and Alfie
It’s beautiful and a true one of a kind! We love the look on your face, Walter!
Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly
That’s a super idea. I wish I could manage my sewing machine better :o)
Wow Cindy….you should/could be a designer! You have a very creative mind to be able to see what you need to do and then make a pattern!
Bravo and Walter thank you for the handsone pose.
Hugs
Madi and mom
Truly a wearable work of art!
We have never seen or heard of doing this with old jeans. NICE way to repurpose them.
Flashback! Oh how Mom remembers making those! Or course, hers didn’t turn out nice like yours because remember, Mom can’t even sew a button on 🙂 You did a beautiful job Miss Cindy!!
We think that Walter has an eye for fashion!
Hugs,
Lily Belle & Muffin
LOVE the skirts you came up with – and Walter did a fantastic job showing the finished product!
I do remember making shorter versions. Maybe I’ll have to try my hand at this again!
KZK
Your talent just blows me away! And…Mabel Lou and I both have a crush on your super models!!
SHE remembers..
XXXOOO Daisy, Bella & Roxy
hello walter its dennis the vizsla dog hay that skirt is verry nice but i do not think it wil fit yoo!!! for wun thing it duz not hav a hole for yore tail!!! ha ha ok bye
So pretty. You make such nice things.
I love this, and you’ve made it all look so easy, which is a tribute to your amazing talent and creativity!
what a cool idea,, and turned out beautiful!
love
tweedles
[…] blog, Bird Brains and Dog Tales. She has a great tutorial for making a modern jeans skirt here. Congratulations Cindy, and thank you to everyone who […]