Making Old Skirts New

One of my hobbies is making old clothes, that are not very fashionable anymore, and turning them into something new. If you know how, it's a lot of fun!

I have a lot of old skirts from when I was a young teenager. They're not very fashionable any more and I can't really fit in them. So I decided to make them a little more current. (Please excuse my awkward legs/feet.)

#1 I've wanted to get a layered skirt for quite a while. It is a popular style right now, but I haven't been able to actually find one that isn't ridiculously expensive. So I finally decided to make myself one. I'm not sure how it looks still. It isn't exactly what I wanted, but it was free so it's better than nothing!

Before

After

Basically I pinned the two layers together at the top of the frilly layers. I cut the underneath layer at the top of my knees which conveniently is the same length as the top of the filly layers. 

(When I say frilly layers I mean this.)

I'm not 100% sure about the finished look. Most of the ones I've seen don't have frills or are higher in the front. So the frills may not be the best display of this type of skirt. I don't know yet.

#2 Another one I worked on is a two layered brown patterned skirt. I didn't actually cut it or sew anything I simply tucked the waistband under itself until it was a length I thought looked good.

                                              Before                                              After

#3      I used to be much better at sewing than I am now. I've gotten out of practice. My sewing machine broke several times and I never really got back into it. While I still had it I bought a dress that I wanted to turn into a skirt. Pretty simple right? Yeah, I thought so. Apparently it's not as easy as I thought.

(You can see how long ago it was.)

I bought it at a thrift store and was looking for pattern and not at the material pieces themselves. It turned out that the dress I picked had three panels. One for the skirt, one for the chest, and a separate one for the stomach. So the top seam of the skirt would be somewhere in the stomach panel. Which would require extra sewing for the waist. :/ 

Also there was a zipper in the back. Starting at the top of the chest panel and going all the way into the skirt panel. So, I seam ripped the zipper from the top to where I wanted the top of the skirt to start. I moved the metal prongs on the end of the zipper to where I wanted the zipper to stop. It was a difficult process and I didn't use any kind of tutorial or read anything about how to actually do it. I just kinda flew by the seat of my pants and it worked somehow. 

After I fixed the zipper, cut the extra fabric off the top of the dress. I sewed the zipper on the rest of the way and I hemmed the waist.

 I have a another dress that's white and brown. I never got around to hemming the waist, but I did cut the amount of skirt off that I wanted.


I bought a third dress from the thrift store, that's white with black flowers on it, at the thrift store. I was planning to turn it into a skirt as well. But then I discovered it was a Ralph Lauren dress and I didn't cut it up.

Denim Shorts

One of the trends I haven't bought into yet is denim shorty shorts. Now this particular trend has been around a while, but I wasn't sure I could pull it off so I never bothered trying. Until now.

I had an old pair of jeans I was going to get rid of. I started to have second thoughts about donating them. I like to update things, and was there nothing I could do to make them wearable? I've seen so many pins on Pinterest about turning old jeans into shorts. Why not give it a try? So here it how I did it!


You'll need:
Jeans
sandpaper (optional)
X-acto knife
box cutter


First I started with-obviously-a pair of jeans. I would definitely use an old pair for this project because the whole point is to make them look rough so I wouldn't waste a good pair.

I cut my jeans just above the knee to make sure I had plenty to work with. Then put them on. The extremely helpful tutorial I used said you could roll them up. You should try messing around with it, they may look better shorter around the outside of your leg. Play with it and once you get it how you want it use a sharpie or a marker to make a line on the inside of the jeans for where to cut them.

Take them off and cut the marked line. Trim them if necessary, but if there are pieces that are a little jagged or rough. You can leave them they'll add to the look.

Next you'll need the sand-paper. This step is optional since it does add to the effect, but it takes a while and a lot of elbow grease to get any progress. Basically sand a couple of spots where you want holes.

Then put cardboard in the leg to make sure the cuts don't go through to the back of the leg. (Also make sure the pockets are out of the way so you don't get a lot of holes in them.) Use and X-acto knife around the legs to make little cuts and splits. The X-acto knife won't make a huge difference. Feel free to go crazy.

Now for the box cutter. Be very careful with this one because they are sharp. Make two long cuts on the front of the shorts parallel to the leg opening about a half-inch from the bottom edge. Make sure to use the cardboard in between your surfaces. The whole point of this is to have unique fraying designs so you don't want it to be the same on the front and the back.

You can do little frays here and there on the top edge of the pockets or on the belt loops or whatever you want.

Once you're happy with your shorts that's it. You're done!