I recently found some cute knit pants at our local Volunteers of America store. Great brand, good fit, and looked adorable in the dressing room (with bare feet). Then I got them home and tried them on with my customary 2-3" heeled boots. Oh no! Star Trek was cool in the 70's but this look just doesn't work now.
So I set to work with my scissors and sewing machine, transforming these babies into a cute skirt. If you haven't tried this before, it's especially simple with knit pants without a zipper or woven pants that are a little large and ideally have a side zipper. Just cut them apart at the inseam, lay the two sides right-sides together, and restitch to form front and back center seams.
At this point, I found that the skirt tended to hug my stomach and emphasized my belly, a common problem with refashioning pants to skirts and not very attractive. Luckily, my pants had no zipper and I was able to tuck about 2" of fabric up at the center front, tapering to the side seams, and stitch along the original waistband. This neatly eliminated the excess fabric AND the unwanted tummy attention!
Next a quick hem just below the knee, and I took a look at my final result: a professional black skirt that is as comfy as yoga pants and wears like iron. I paired it with my tall black boots and fell in love. Success!
6 comments:
Hi Amy,
Great tip on tucking up 2 extra inches at the waist to solve those fit problems. This looks like SUCH a classic black skirt - but customized, well fitting, and ecological/economical! Win, win, win, WIN! Lovely. Can't wait to see what else you post about, I can tell you're experienced at this!
-Jessica
Amy,
This skirt looks great! I appreciate the details you are giving about your refashion, since I am a newbie. Would love to see a waistband detail! Unclear on whether you essentially brought the whole skirt up 2" to give some more width at the hips, or created some kind of pleat.
Looking forward to seeing more of your creations!
-Jenni
Hi Amy,
What a great refashion, I'm looking forward to more of that. You have a great sense of humor in the way you talk about your refashion, I love it!
take care,
Eddie
Jenni,
It's hard to see the waistband fix in photos, especially on black fabric and since I cut off the excess fabric. Image putting a knit skirt on inside out. Next, take and make a small fold 1" deep (so taking out 2") just under the waistband at the center front and pinning the fold. Now, take the skirt off and taper that fold out to nothing on the side seams. Then you just sew along the original waistband stitching (might I suggest basting just to be sure?) and cut out the extra fabric after you're sure you like the fit. It was a neat fix and came about just because I was irritated when looking in the mirror and starting pinching bits of fabric to see what else I could do!
Amy
Wow! This looks really good. One would never know that they were pants before. Very flattering on you and very professional looking!
Wow I think it looks better as a skirt! Very lovely refashion! Nice job
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