Leather Pants Refashion

If you have been following along Refashion Runway, this week's challenge is Leather. Which literally scares me beyond belief. I think sewing leather is beyond my sewing skills level. No pins. No seam ripping and redoing. I tend to still have to rip and redo seams, b/c ____ happened and it looks weird, etc. It is a one shot kind of deal that scares me. SCARES ME!

Beyond being scared of sewing with leather. The other challenge I faced was the paucity of leather found in the thrift shops. If I did find some it was super expensive. On my last ditch effort stop I stumbled on a pair of leather pants that cost $10. But they were pretty ugly.

The best part of these pants was the little note I found in the pocket when I put my hand into the pocket.

If these pants could talk! These pants possibly may not have been worn since New Years Eve 2000/2001. Wow. This was an itemized list of expenses (who does that??) from the night. Must have been a great night as there is a car jump written on the bottom of the list. Oh the stories I can come up with in my head from this night. Notice the different handwriting...

Now these pants needed a lot of work. I thought what I would wear the most out of them.... pants, skirt, or shorts? Pants were out of the question, I won't wear them. Skirt was a maybe. But I would wear them as shorts the most. I'd rather make something I will actually wear a lot of, and that is shorts. These pants are very high waisted, have long slit pockets, lots of pleats that make the pants poof, and quite honestly look like a leather diaper from the  back.

What I did.... I removed the bottom tier of leather from the lower legs. Then cut down the pants  and turned them into shorts. I seriously cut off a good 8 inches, easy. I then lowered the height of the actual shorts, cutting it down from the waist. I did save the old waistband but it was not long enough to reattach it. I saved the pockets as best as I could but they were almost cut in half. I then slowly, and methodically took in the shorts in the hip area by taking it in at the side seams. Note: leather stretches sometimes. When I had it just right, I took the leftover leather connected the pieces together and made a new waistband. I then attached it to the shorts. This part made me loose my mind. Because of the thickness it got very difficult to feed through my machine. The parts with the pockets were the hardest b/c they were THICK. But I got it to work. I almost threw them out of the window by this point. Almost done. Then I decided on the length of my shorts and hemmed the legs. Luckily I managed to get them to be even. :)

I didn't have enough time to make a top since bad rain was heading our way and I needed to take pictures outside. Plus I was still super sick. I made a feather necklace with a piece of scrap leather that I had found a tutorial for on pinterest. I LOVE FEATHERS. Here is my new pair of shorts and necklace!

For more on this refashion click here. If have not voted yet head on over to Refashion Runway and vote! Next challenge is Halloween, which I am over the Moon ;) for.... I love sewing costumes. I can't wait to show everyone my next item.

Cheers,
Lauren