How to Make a Skirt From Old Jeans: Easy Upcycle Tutorial
Today we want to show you how we interpret sustainable fashion by making a skirt from a pair of jeans.
We love this kind of thrift flip and want to encourage you by showing you how easy it can be.
Make sure you have a strong needle for your sewing machine.
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Tools and materials:
- Baggy jeans
- Seam ripper
- Pins
- Scissors
- Ruler or other straight edge
- Fabric marker
- Sewing machine
1. Open the seams
A seam ripper makes this job so much easier!
Place the tip of the seam ripper under the stitches and slide it up the seam as smoothly as you can.
You want to open the inner leg seams from the hem to the crotch and the back crotch seam right up to the waistband. At the front, open the short section of seam between the crotch and the zipper.
2. Choose your skirt length
Try the jeans on and decide on the skirt length you want.
We made one skirt calf length and the other came to just below the knees.
Line up the sides of the jeans so they lie flat, then fold them to the length you want and cut along the fold.
Alternatively, draw a straight line across the jeans and cut along it.
We won’t be hemming these skirts as we like the raw edge look, and it’s a challenge to make a professional looking hem on denim.
3. Front seam
Line up the front first.
Make sure the curved seam is smooth and flat as you place it over the underneath layer.
Pin it in place from the bottom of the zipper to the lowest point of the overlap.
4. Back seam
For the back seam, turn the jeans wrong side out.
With the right sides facing, pin the edges of the seam together from the waistband to the lower edge.
Don’t worry about the pointed section - we’re going to remove that!
With your fabric marker, draw a slightly curved line from the straight section of the crotch seam down to the hem.
Pin along this line, which will be your sewing line, and try the skirt on.
You may find especially with a calf length skirt, that you don’t want to sew the back seam completely to the hemline.
Check that you can walk in your skirt!
5. Sew the new seams
Denim is a thick fabric so you will need a strong needle designed for sewing it or leather. You can also use a special presser foot with a roller at the front, to make it easier to feed the fabric through.
For the front seam, sew into the original stitching line as far as possible.
We also sewed down the seam allowance at the edge of the front slit, as close to the edge as we could.
At the back, remember to sew along the new seam line that you drew on to the fabric.
Once all the pieces are sewn together, it’s time to cut off the excess fabric at the back to remove the sharp point inside the skirt.
How to make a skirt from jeans
Now you can elevate your fashion game with these trendy denim skirts - and do it sustainably!
You can style them up in so many ways, from a casual lunch in the park to a date night.
And it only takes an afternoon to make a skirt from jeans.
So are you going to give it a try? Let us know in the comments if we inspired you.
Next, check out these Three Easy Fashion Hacks to Keep Your Shoe Tongue in Place.
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i used to make Jean skirts from old jeans in college (Ohio State). However I used a cool fabric & sewed it in between the front & rear “triangles”. It was during the “hippy” era & my new skirt fit right in!!