Dress Pants to Dress SKIRT

 I had dress pants that were far too large on me that I had bought a few years ago.  I pulled this unfortunate move of getting rid of all of my dress pants when I gained a little weight...and then I lost weight again. So pretty much I was left with dress pants that needed to come down a couple sizes.

My mom was going to take them in, but we quickly discovered that they had way too much material in all the wrong places.  I opted to take them apart and try my hand at sewing by making a skirt.  Using some very unconventional methods, we got it done! Here are the steps I used

Step 1: Take the inner side seams out of the legs and take out the seams in the seat as well.  Leave the outer side seams in because these are quality made and there is no need to waste them.

Step 2: Turn the pants wrong side out and put them on.

 Step 3: While you have them on, pin them to where they need to be.  I wanted mine to be a pencil skirt, so I had pinned it in tighter below my bottom.  Also pin an inch or two lower than where you want the skirt to hit and cut the excess material off.

Step 4: If you are like me you don't really understand one darn thing about sewing...but you DO understand linear regression.  Basically, I drew a line of best fit between my sketchily placed pins.  As it turns out, I can never sew a straight line until I specifically draw one on there.  I apparently just can't think in straight lines. 

Step 5: Use the sewing machine to put in the seams and cut off the excess material.  Put the skirt on and tweak and remaining oddball parts.

Step 6: Sew up the bottom hem.  This black skirt was done with a regular stitch (it blended in well with the color of the skirt) and the lighter one in the background my mom put a blind stitch in the hem.  I have no ability to tell you how to do that other than to get someone who knows how to blind stitch ;).

Step 7: Add any little embellishments you want.  I had JUST enough scalloped lace to put on the corner of this skirt. I pinned it where I wanted it and then sewed it in with my machine.  The way I see it, this will draw attention away from the fact that I did it myself.

The GREAT part about this method was that I did not have to redo the outer seams, the zipper section, OR the waistband.  You may have to readjust or remove a belt loop in the back.

The moral of the story is if you can relate something you don't understand to something that you DO understand, it all makes it a lot better.  I love remaking things into something that I can use.  I would have had to not only wasted the original $40 I spent on the pants, but would have had to spend another $50 or so to get two more of my favorite pencil skirts. 

Thrifty never looked so cute.

Happy crafting!