October Sewing Challenge show and tell - easy peasy skirt

The challenge for October was to upcycle a couple of items bought from an op shop.  I didn't do quite as much sewing as I'd hoped but I did manage to make two things:

The first is a skirt made from my favourite, but holey, pair of jeans, and an old skirt of my daughter's.  It's easy peasy to make and took about an hour. 

Read on if you want to see how I made it or skip to the pic of the top!

To make the easy peasy jeans skirt:
1.  Cut off the legs of your pair of jeans, about 2.5 cms below zip, or where the seam stops being curved.  Tuck in pockets so you don't cut them off by mistake!

2.  Cut waistband off skirt.  Make two rows of gathering stitch along the top of the skirt.  Pull up the stitches, a little at a time if you have a lot of material in the skirt as I did, until the skirt width matches the width of the bottom of the jeans yoke.

3.  Pin, tack and stitch  - being careful not to sew the pockets into the seam.

4.  If you're like me you'll want to try the skirt on before doing anything else to check all is OK.

OK? Good ...

5.  Recommended - stitch a second row around the skirt/jeans yoke seam.  Optional - neaten the seam.

6.  Press the seam upwards towards the yoke.  Topstitch along the denim - I used two rows and two colours for a bit of interest.

Yay!  It's finished.  Wear your skirt with pride and show off how clever and environmentally aware you are.

This top is made from a men's shirt I bought from the op shop for $3.  There's a tutorial on the blog My Gramma Said which shows you in detail how to make the shirt - good instructions and photos.  Again a fairly quick make, just over an hour. 

I wasn't sure what my daughter would think of it, but as soon as she came in and saw it on the mannequin she asked 'oh, can I have that?' which is always a good sign, then she wore it until bedtime.  Very cute she looks in it too.

Now you can see how easy it is to customize clothing.  I think it might become my new sewing craze.  I still have to upcycle the rest of those items I bought at the beginning of October.  Better get my thinking cap on ...