Upcycled Denim Skirts

I was fortunate to have the Friday before the 4th off from work and I decided to make it a sewing day.  I began at 8:00 that morning and finished up just before 4:00 in the afternoon.  I had a ball!

I made my oldest two skirts using two pair of short shorts (too short, in my opinion) that had come in the two bags of clothes the girls received a couple weeks ago from a friend.  I originally planned to toss them into our donate bag when I got an idea to make skirts out of them.

I had cut the legs off of my youngest's holey jeans at the beginning of June when I made her three pair of jean shorts.  The denim past the knee area was still in really great shape and I was sure I could do something with them so I saved them.

I used my zipper foot to get close enough and stitch the legs all together

I carefully cut each one of them up the sides and stitched them together with 1/4" seams carefully lining up the hems so they were even.

I turned the shorts inside out and positioned them to pin the skirt to the shorts just below the pockets and zipper.  I trimmed away the excess on the shorts and then stitched all the way around with another 1/4 seam.  Once turned right side out I pressed the skirts.

Back

Added button embellishment

Finished!

I used pinking shears to trim the raw edges of the seams so they wouldn’t unravel and make strings.  Then I added some buttons I had to decorate it a little more.

The other skirt I made with a scrap of calico cut in a long wide strip that someone gave me after finishing a quilt.  I added the eyelet trim I already had along the hem and then top stitched it.  Then I sewed two rows of stitches and gathered the calico across the top.  I attached it the calico to the shorts the same way as I did with the other skirt.

I added a belt by simply stitching another narrow strip of fabric, turning it right side out and pressing it flat.  I finished the ends and ran it through the belt loops.

When my daughter got home from work that evening I surprised her with them.  She was so excited when she saw them and I was tremendously relieved and happy that she liked them so much.  You just never know for sure with teenagers if it will be a hit or a miss.

I love that I was able to recycle these random pieces into two items of fashionable and functional clothing.  It was a ton of fun and I'm excited to try it again.

Have you ever done anything like this?

New pics, as promised, of my daughter's new curtains.
Ignore the ugly A/C unit, if that is even possible. :)

Fun pom pom trim and cute fabric strip.
I made the tie backs our of the same fabric.