Recycled Skirt Mash Up

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  Step 1

  I cut the legs off completely.

  *** Caution! *** Be sure to pull the pockets out so you don’t cut the bottoms off of your pockets!

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  Step 2

  In order to make the hem even, I measured 10 inches from the waist and then made a mark with a sharpie.

  If I had been clever, I would have turned the shorts inside out for this part….

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  Step 3

  I measured the bottom edge of what was now a very short skirt and got about 44 inches.

  (Precision is not a high priority in this project. If it was, I wouldn’t be doing it!)

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  Step 4

  I ironed the fabric I was going to use.

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  Step 5

  I needed strips 4.5 inches wide.

  The correct way to get these is with a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. I used the quick and easy way instead.

  I made a cut a little more than 4.5 inches from the edge. Then I just pulled in two directions and the fabric torn along the bias. A straight line with no cutting.

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  Step 6

  The edges tend to curl a bit but I just get out my iron and put them back in their place.

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  Step 7

  Here are my strips of fabric.

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  Step 8

  I could cut neat 4.5 inch squares. But that would look too quilt-like and then every place I messed up would be obvious. So I went with random lengths.

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  Step 9

  I lined up my patches in the order I wanted and then serged them together.

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  Step 10

  Then I put right sides together….

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  Step 11

  And made a loop.

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  Step 12

  I repeated the process three times, with each loop or tier larger than the last. The lengths I was aimed for were 50, then 85, then 115 inches. I think I got 54, 90, and 117 inches. That’s ok—this project is very forgiving of imprecision.

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  Step 13

  It was time to pin the first loop on the skirt. The loop was bigger than the skirt. After all, I didn’t want the skirt to be as uncomfortable as the shorts were! So I needed to pin the loop on in a way that the gathers would be evenly spread out along the seam.

  The correct way to do this is to sew a basting stitch along the top of the loop and then tug gently on it, distributing the fabric evenly over the length of thread that is the size you want.

  That isn’t what I did. I don’t like to mess with basting.

  Instead, I marked the four quadrants of the loop with pins so I could match them up with the four quadrants of the shorts. Here’s how. I spread the loop out and put pins in the leftmost and the rightmost ends.

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  Step 14

  Then, I put those pins in the middle next to each other and put pins at the new leftmost and rightmost ends.

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  Step 15

  Ergo, I had four pins equal distance from each other and dividing the loop into four equal parts.

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  Step 16

  I then matched each of the four pins with the sides, front, and back of the shorts-turned-skirt.

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  Step 17

  Once it was anchored in four places, I preceded to pin each of the four sections as evenly as I could.

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  Step 18

  I repeated the process for the second tier/loop.

  Before I sewed on the last tier/loop, I hemmed it. That isn’t the correct way, either. You are supposed to do the hem last because you should try on the garment and mark where the hem should go with a ruler between the fabric and the floor. This way the hem is straight even though your body has bumps and curves. (It also presumes you have someone else to do this with you.) But with such a ruffled skirt, such niceties don’t really matter. And it was easier to hem the last loop before I put the last loop on the skirt.

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  Step 19

  I sewed on the last loop…

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  Step 20

  And that’s it!

Comments

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Arawynn · 8 projects 10th August 2013

This is too cute. Definitely would be a great way to reuse jeans and shirts.

J. Pario · Lincoln, Nebraska, US · 26 projects 11th August 2013

It was fun! I have already scouted out fabric for my next one.... The thrift store had a sale-- $1 for everything you could stuff in a brown paper sack. I am planning to play with pastels and stripes.

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