Restyle Your Jeans to an Original Maxi Skirt

If you don't have the time or patience to sit and read a tutorial, no worries. I made a short video tutorial that's under 5 minutes for you to watch instead. Enjoy

About 8 years ago I decide that I didn't like wearing jeans. I just like dresses, skirts or flowy pants. Sometimes I wear jeggings, but never traditional jeans with a button closure and zipper. That left me with a closet full of jeans that were just collecting dust. So I decided to combine a pair of my old jeans with some fantastic rayon fabric from my stash. Here's what I did.

First, draw a curved line from the hip of the the right leg, across the crotch and down to the left ankle. You can use a plate, French curve ruler or just eyeball it.

Then use some good, sharp fabric sheers to cut through both the front and the back along the curved line you drew.

You may need to take some tucks at the front and back seams so it will lay correctly. If you do this, check the curve and make sure it still has a nice shape afterwards.

Now measure across the hip to where the curve starts to straighten out on the leg then multiply that by two. This will give you the width for the fabric you will be gathering. To get the length fold the short leg over the long leg and measure from the cut edge down to the pant hem. Add 1/2 inch for the gathered seam allowance plus 1 inch for the hem and that will give you the length the fabric needs to be.

To get a good idea of what it would look like I roughly inserted the fabric into position. Just to make sure I liked it before I cut the fabric.

**For reference, I used 1 yard of 54 inch wide fabric.

To help the fabric fit into place fold it in half and make a curve along the top raw edge corners and cut it. You can try to match the curve of the pants exactly, but it's not necessary.

Now measure down the length you got from earlier, plus the hem and seam allowance, and cut the fabric to that measurement.

**Tip: If you have a serger you will want to finish the raw edges of the jeans and the fabric. If you don't have a serger a zig zag stitch would be fine.

After you finish the edges, mark the middle point of the fabric. This will help you attach the gathers. Now, using a long stitch setting put in a basting/gathering stitch across the top of the fabric and stop just after the curve. Before gathering it I found it easiest to attach the fabric to the side of the leg starting at the ankle on the front and back. Make sure to leave one inch for the hem on both sides at the bottom. Pin it up to where the leg starts to curve then attach the middle mark on the fabric to the pants hip at the side seam. Then pull one of the threads and start to gather it. Keep attaching and gathering more or less as you go until it's all gathered across the thigh area.

Baste it in place and try it on to make sure it's sitting right. Once you are satisfied, permanently stitch it in place and hem the fabric.

And you are done!!

This is probably one of my most adventurous and original refashions I've done. I'm really pleased with how it turned out! Tell me in the comments one of your most adventurous or original makes.

I paired it with an Obi Belt I made from two of my husbands old ties. You can check out my Obi Belt tutorial here.

I'd love to hear about the creative things you have made with your old denim. Let me know in the comments.

Thanks Reading!!

Koe