How to Quickly Turn Your Old Distressed Jeans Into a Stylish Skirt

Quiana Unique
by Quiana Unique
5 Materials
$15
10 Minutes
Easy

Hey, Queens! Today’s great DIY tutorial is on how to make a jean skirt from old jeans. This distressed denim mini skirt is so cute and simple to make. Let’s get started!

Tools and materials:

  • Pair of jeans
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue or sewing materials
  • Seam ripper or tweezers
  • Fray check
Cutting the bottom half of jean legs

1. Cut off the bottoms

Fold your pants in half, line them up, and make a mark where you want to cut them at while wearing them. Then cut the bottom half of both sides off. Make sure they’re laying on top of each other and lined up so they’re even.

Cutting down the inner seam of jeans

2. Cut the inner seam

Once that’s removed, cut down the inner seam line, or the crotch seam, to open the inside up.

Cutting up the center of the jeans to the zipper

3. Cut the center seam until you reach the zipper

Now, cut in the center up to the zipper. This will help loosen this up so we can bring the two legs in. 

Cutting up the center of the jeans on the back

You’re going to want to do this in the front and the back, but make sure not to go too far up in the back.

Folding one side of the center seam over the other

4. Fold one side of the center seam over the other

Next, fold one side of that center seam over. This is going to bring the left leg portion in towards the right leg portion.

Gluing both sides of seams together

5. Sew or glue the two sides together

Use your hot glue gun to glue these two pieces together. Make sure they’re nice and secure. 

DIY denim skirt step by step

If you know how to hand sew or have a sewing machine, stitch along the lines that are already on there, and use thread that matches your denim. 

Adding more glue to edges that aren't attached to each other

I like to flip it inside out and see what edges aren’t attached and add more glue. 

How to make a skirt out of jeans

6. Repeat on the back

Here, I’m folding over the backside. The back side is going to get folded over more than the front side, especially for those of us who have more room.

How to make jean skirt from old jeans

7. Cut open the bottom half of the jeans

Now, turn your skirt inside out, and let’s use the bottom half of the jeans. 

Make jeans into a skirt

Cut them open. This is going to be placed in those open areas of the skirt.

Gluing on cut pieces of jeans over open spaces

8. Glue on the cut jean legs

Glue on the cut jean legs to cover the open spaces of the skirt. Once you cut a piece that you like, just glue it on as well.

Trimming off excess fabric

9. Trim off the excess fabric

Once it’s glued on, trim off the excess fabric as close as possible to the glue.

Distressing the edges of the skirt with tweezer

10. Distress the skirt

Distress the bottom half of your skirt. You can use tweezers by plucking the white pieces out. 

Distressing the edges of the skirt with seam ripper

Another option, which is one of my favorite tools for distressing, is a seam ripper. You use it the same way, but it makes things much faster.

How to make a skirt from jeans

11. Cut off white pieces

Once you’re done, cut off those white pieces, because they will hang kind of low.

Using Fray Check to prevent the skirt from fraying further

12. Use fray check

The last step is to use Fray Check if you do not want your skirt to fray any further. 

Distressed denim mini skirt

How to quickly turn your old distressed jeans into a stylish skirt tutorial

Here’s your finished distressed denim mini skirt! Now you can make jeans into a skirt anytime you want! Let me know what you think about this tutorial down below.

Suggested materials:
  • Pair of jeans
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue or sewing materials
See all materials

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