Refashion an Old Shirt Into a Ruffle Hem Skirt

Tools and materials:

• Shirt
• Measuring tape
• Chalk
• Scissors
• Pins
• Sewing machine

Remove the pocket

The first step to this upcycle is removing the pocket from your old shirt.

Cut out the skirt 

Next, draw a horizontal line along the bottom of the shirt. 

I drew 35 cm (13.8 inches) up from the line and drew another horizontal line at this point. 

I grabbed my scissors and cut along the line I had just drawn. Make sure to trim the sides of the shirt straight so that you have ½ your hip measurement plus 3 cm (1.2 inches) for seam allowance. 

Sew the side seams 

Next, I placed the front and back pieces of my skirt, right sides together and pinned along the side seams. 

I then sewed along my pinned lines, putting the skirt together. I also overlocked to ensure the fabric would hold. 

Create the ruffle hem 

Next, I cut off the sleeves of the shirt and removed the cuffs. I also cut open the seam of the sleeve so that I could make the ruffle hem for the skirt. 

I cut a straight line at the top and bottom of the open sleeve, to straighten it out. 

Still using my scissors, I cut the sleeve into 2 rectangles. I cut the second rectangle so that the buttons were removed. I repeated the same on my second sleeve.  

I connected all four rectangular pieces to create one big fabric circle. I made sure to overlock again after sewing. 

On one side of the fabric, I folded the edge over twice and sewed the folds in place. 

I overlocked the other side of the circle piece to ensure the fabric wouldn’t fray. 

On the side I had just overlocked, I sewed a very loose seam all the way around and left the thread out when I was finished. 

I pulled the thread to gather the piece and create the ruffles for my new skirt. I made sure that once I had finished gathering, the ruffles had the same width as the width of the skirt. 

Next, it was time to connect the ruffles to the skirt. I used pins to fit the two pieces together and then sewed them in place. 

Create darts 

Once the ruffles had been sewed on to my skirt, I moved back to the top part and marked 4 cm (1.6 inches) inward at the top. I made a second mark 20 cm (7.9 inches) downward from the top.

I then drew a slanted line to connect these two points. I repeated the same for the other side of the skirt. 

I moved back to my sewing machine to sew along the slanted lines. 

I tried on my new skirt and played around to see how I could make it fit me perfectly. I decided I would make two darts at the back of the skirt. It’s important to mark the places you are going to sew. 

To create the darts at the back of the skirt, I found the center point of the marks I had made and drew a 25 cm (9.8 inches) long line from it. I connected the outer marks to the bottom of the centerline, making two inward-facing triangles. 

I folded and pinned the darts in place and then moved back to my sewing machine to sew them. 

Make the waistband 

Next, I moved on to the waistband of the skirt. I used the leftover fabric of the shirt and marked 10 cm (3.9 inches) from the bottom. 

I drew a 24 cm (9.4 inches) line between the two points and marked from just below the button a ¼ of my waist size plus 1 cm (0.4 inches) for seam allowance which was 17 cm (6.7 inches). 

I grabbed my scissors and cut along my markings to get the fabric needed for the waistband. 

I sewed the two pieces together to make my waistband and then used the iron to press down a small fold on both ends of the waistband. I then folded the waistband in half, lengthwise, and pressed. 

To attach the waistband to the skirt, I placed it over the top so that the fold of the waistband lay directly over the top of the skirt. I pinned and sewed it into place. 

All that was left to do was sew on a button and buttonhole to the waistband of the skirt. 

This ruffle hem skirt turned out perfectly! What other shirt upcycle ideas do you have? Let me know in the comments below!