Jean Skirt Conversion

So, I've been on a bit of a weight loss kick, which fortunately, went pretty well for a while there and now I'm left with a bunch of clothes that don't fit me, and no money to buy a whole new wardrobe. First world problems, I know.

Anyway, I had some fairly ratty jeans that me and my kachunga thighs had worn holes in- at the bottoms and that place where your thighs rub together. I hate wasting anything, and this particular pair of jeans had already been partially cannibalized in order to make my bag of the summer a year ago.

I love pencil skirts. I'm all over the fifties, Mad Men inspired pencil skirts. However, if you like jeans and would like a jeans pencil skirt, you cannot find one in the stores that isn't too short for my tastes. Don't get me wrong, I have a mini skirt in jeans, but that's not want I wanted. I wanted a pencil skirt that hit below my knees and looked awesome.

Lo and behold, the conversion.

(Yes, I know there's threads that need cutting. Gimme a break, I was coming down with the plague...)

You'll notice, unlike so many jeans skirts out there, this one does not have the stupid inside thigh seam simply lain on top and stitched down. Not only is that a style that I think is just WRONG and points to the wrong place on your body girls!

See that little triangle? Where does it point? Yes, right there. No, no guy needs to have his eyes drawn there by an arrow.  Don't do it. Not pretty.

Besides, the whole reason for this was there were holes that needed to go anyway.
Of course to do this right, it took a LOT of seam ripping. A LOT of seam ripping...

Jeans have this lovely way of doing their seams with bitch-tight-strong thread that just does not want to come out. It nearly did my head in.

The trick to this appears to be that you have to make certain you rip all the way up to the seams. Not just close, but all the way up. I took out the leg seams and then the crotch/bum seams up to the zipper/waistband.

 From there it was relatively easy.
Seaming down the backside, ignoring the curve of the cut. I eyeballed it, roughly following the guide of the grain, but you could just as easily chalk up a straight line to follow.

The front was a little trickier.
I did this first try. You may not quite be able to see it, but the effect was a bit of a pucker right at the bottom of the zipper which was tres unattractive. I found if you just take it slow and make certain that your seams are nicely pressed its not too bad.

Then a bit of hemming (hairy legs and all)
 I like to press the bottom of my hems before turning the inside. I find it comes out cleaner that way.
 And then it was easy enough to stitch the hem down and call it a day.
In the end I also had to take in the waist, which was just simple darts, in order for it to fit.

And now I have a jeans pencil skirt! If you try this with a wash of jeans that isn't terribly flattering once the legs are joined, my suggestion is to simply buy a jeans wash dye and throw it together. In fact, I might just dye the next one I do black for some variety.

Comments

  1. Looks fantastic. I totally agree about the length of skirt and the inner thigh seam thing. Also, you are looking great after weight loss ;)

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