Two-tone DIY Jean Skirt
I rose to the challenge of making a half-half DIY piece of clothing by turning two similar in style, but different colored thrift-store jeans into a two-tone skirt. Follow this DIY jean skirt tutorial to make one for yourself!
Tools and materials:
- 2 pairs of jeans
- Paper
- Pins
- Pencil
- Thread
- Scissors
- Seam ripper
- Iron
- Sewing machine
Make a pattern
Trace it with a half-inch seam allowance, but do not include the waistband in your pattern – that will be separate. Repeat three more times so you have four identical pattern pieces, and then cut the pieces out.
Deconstruct the jeans
I realized that one of the pairs of jeans I was using didn’t have a buttonhole, and that would make it difficult to attach the waistbands of the two jeans. To see how I solved this, check the video, from 1:38 to 2:30.
Now begin deconstructing the jeans. Using a seam ripper, remove any outside pockets, the waistbands, and the crotch seams. Cut the legs apart and cut each leg open so you end up with four pieces that lay flat (two from each pair of jeans.)
Cut the skirt
Lay each of the four leg pieces flat and trim the sides so that you have straight pieces. You may need to sew pieces together to get enough of each jean fabric for half a skirt.
Once you have the right width of fabric, lay the pattern pieces on top. Trace the pattern pieces onto the fabric, two of each kind, and cut out. For the front pieces, make sure the top of the pattern aligns with the top of your jeans, so the front pockets remain part of your skirt.
Sew the back
Sew the two back pieces together with a half-inch seam. Remember, there’s one back piece from each pair of jeans.
Sew the front
You’re going to need to add in a piece of fabric next to the zipper on the front of the skirt. To see how to do that, check the video from 4:50 to 5:20. This is for the little flap of fabric that is always behind a zipper.
Before sewing the front pieces together, fold in the side edges about half an inch and iron the fold.
Pin the side of the zipper to the non-zippered front piece as close the seam as possible and then sew it on. Now lay the rest of the front piece on top of the other and top stitch near the edge from the bottom up. When you get to the bottom of the zipper, turn your fabric around and sew another line of stitches from top to bottom, so you have two parallel rows of stitches.
Sew the side seams
Lay the front and back pieces together, right sides facing, and sew the two side seams.
Check the size
Turn the skirt right-side out and try it on. If it’s too big, take in the sides as I did at 6:35 in the video.
Finish raw edges
Use a serge stitch to sew along all the raw edges of the skirt to keep it from fraying.
Make the pockets
The pockets I removed from my two pairs of jeans didn’t match, so I chose the one that was the size I wanted a remade the other one to match.
Trace the pocket you want onto the fabric you’re making the new one from, leaving a half-inch seam allowance on the bottom and sides and one inch at the top. Cut out the new pocket. Iron the top edge of the pocket down twice and then iron the rest of the edges down once. You now have two matching pockets. Copy the stiches from the first pocket onto the second one to make them look as identical as possible.
Pin the pockets to the back of the skirt and sew them on.
Make the waistband
Using the waistbands from the jeans, measure each one against one half of your skirt (from center-front to center-back). Mark the back point, add a one-inch seam allowance, and cut. Now open the waistbands, place them right-sides together and sew them together.
Sandwich the waist of the skirt between the two layers of waistband and pin it down. Make sure the colors line up the way you want. Sew the waistband on, keeping belt loops out of the way. Then sew the belt loops down.
Hem
With the skirt inside-out, turn up the bottom hem twice and sew.
Thanks so much for watching. Come back for more!
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This is really cute!
Adorable