What do you do when you have a closet full of jeans you don’t wear anymore and some fabric you want to make something out of? Well, how about you do what I did and combine the two to make the most unique skirt in your closet. My boys call it my “tricky” skirt. It looks like pants on one side and a skirt on the other. It’s a fun little illusion.

This took just a little over and hour. I’m gonna rate it “medium” because it requires some gathering. Keep reading if you want to see how I turned this pair of jeans into a one of a kind maxi skirt you will love wearing! If you would rather watch a video tutorial you can check out my channel here.

About 8 years ago I decide that I didn’t like wearing jeans. I just like dresses, skirts or flowy pants. Sometimes I wear jeggings, but not traditional jeans with a button closure and zipper. That left me with a closet full of jeans that were just collecting dust. So I decided to combine a pair of my old jeans with some fantastic rayon fabric from my stash. I had purchased it in 2020 from Alyssa May Design during a huge site wide sale she was having. I highly recommend her fabrics.

Ok here we go! First, draw a curved line from the hip of the the right leg, across the thigh and crotch and down to the left ankle. You could use a French curve ruler, a plate or just eyeball it.

Then use some good, sharp fabric sheers to cut through both the front and the back along the curved line you drew. The crotch area was hard to cut through so be careful and go slow.

You may need to take some tucks at the front and back seams so it will lay correctly. If you do this, check the curve and make sure it still has a nice shape afterwards.

Now measure from the side of the hip and across the thigh to where the curve starts to straighten out on the leg. Then multiply that by two. This will give you the width for the fabric you will be gathering. To get the length fold the short leg over the long leg and measure from the cut edge down to the pant hem. Add 1/2 inch for the gathered seam allowance plus 1 inch for the hem and that will give you the length the fabric needs to be. Make sense? Ok good.

I wanted to double check my plan and make sure  this was all gonna work out. So I roughly inserted the fabric into the cut leg. Just to make sure I liked it before I cut the fabric. I sometimes second guess myself when I’m refashioning things and that’s ok. It’s all part of the creative process. Sometimes I come up with a different plan and sometimes I love what’s happening and keep moving forward.

Now, moving forward……To help the fabric fit into place fold it in half and make a curve along the top raw edge corners and cut it. You can try to match the curve of the pants exactly but it’s not necessary.

Now measure down the length you got from earlier, plus the hem and seam allowance, and cut the fabric to that measurement.

**Tip: If you have a serger you will want to finish the raw edges of the jeans and the fabric. If you don’t have a serger a zig zag stitch would be fine. You just want to keep it all from fraying.

After you finish the edges, mark the middle point of the fabric. This will help you attach the gathers. Now, using a long stitch setting put in a basting/gathering stitch across the top of the fabric and stop just after the curve.

Before gathering it I found it easiest to attach the fabric to the side of the leg starting at the ankle on the front and back. Make sure to leave one inch for the hem on both sides at the bottom. Pin it all the way up to where the leg starts to curve then attach the middle mark on the fabric to the pants hip at the side seam. Then pull one of the threads and start to gather the fabric across the thigh. Keep attaching and gathering more or less as you go until it’s all gathered across the thigh area.

Baste it in place and try it on to make sure it’s sitting right. Once you are satisfied go ahead and permanently stitch it in place and hem it.

And you are done!!

This was probably one of my more adventurous refashions. I love how it turned out and I cant wait to wear it ALL the places. I hope you try to refashion neglected items in your closet. If so I’d love to see it! Tag me on Instagram @koetiquemade

Happy Sewing!

Koe