Refashion: Khaki Trousers into Long Skirt w/Ruffled Side

Hello Refashionistas! I was SO very busy last week and I didn't have anything prewritten or scheduled ahead of time (so unlike me) that I didn't post, but I'm back!! I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I got to do LOTS of baking and cooking -one of my favorite things to do and blog about!- so I had a blast!!


Multi-Fabric Ruffled Skirt


On to today's refashion: this is more of a show and tell since I really couldn't write a tutorial for this skirt at the time I made it (which was in August). Now that I've done so much more in the sewing world I probably could figure out a way to write an easy-to-follow tutorial, but back then this was a huge under taking for a girl who had not sewn much other than basic long denim skirts!

The original goal of this refashion: to take a pair of khaki trousers I found at a thrift store for $2.50 and turn it into a long skirt for church and other such related events.


(photo via Pieces of You)

The interruption which led to a new goal: I was inspired by searching Pinterest and stumbling upon Pieces of You and her beautiful skirt designs! I just loved the 'cut out' look and knew I wanted to try my hand at it. I also knew this would be a huge task for me (at that time) and that it wouldn't be easy, but I wanted to try, so I did.

The new goal: To make a long khaki skirt with ruffles down the side that had a wave to it in the front and back (aka not a straight line where they were sewn in, but curved lines instead). And I wanted to make this skirt in only TWO days because I knew if I didn't set a time limit for myself I may not ever finish it (because at that time, and still on occasion now, I would get into a project and usually not finish it).

The Skirt In Detail
Since I had created several long skirts before I knew the basics required to sewing a skirt like I wanted, what I didn't know is how the ruffles would work out and how I would line them up and how they would look when it was all finished.

The first thing I had to do was pick out fabrics from my too-small-to-make-anything-but-enough-to-use-for-something stash to make ruffles for the side. This part took me about 30 minutes since I already knew I wanted to use the fabrics I had with a more 'vintage' feel to them. Then I lined them up in the order I wanted them to appear on the skirt once they were finished.

The ruffles were made the same as the ones on the skirt I showed off here on Refashion Co-op in October. The tutorial for the ruffles can be found on the post from my blog: Denim Skirt w/Ruffles between steps 6-10. Here are the measurements for each of the ruffles I had on this skirt since each fabric has a different set of numbers: The top floral fabric is 5x22 (five inches by twenty-two inches); the blue floral fabric is 6x24; the yellow floral fabric is 6 1/2x26; the pink floral fabric is 8x28; and finally the bottom floral fabric is 6 1/2x32.
The End Result
I had a complete skirt in less than 15 hours!! YAY me! And it was SO much better than I ever expected. At that point I was encouraged and had a lot more confidence in my sewing skills to being trying new things I had been 'afraid' to try before because of how hard they had looked and I hadn't really been willing to risk the clothing article being ruined in a failed refashion. I think this skirt is one of the biggest steps that moved me from beginner to intermediate sewer.

Here are a few photo's for you to look at of the skirt, or you could visit the original post about this skirt on my blog My Designs | Multi-Fabric Ruffled Skirt. I have more photos of the skirt, larger photos of the ones below too actually, on my blog. So if you're interested in seeing more detail you'll have to hop over there...I didn't want to take up too much space by posting all of them on here since there's like 10 photos on the original post total lol.

Until next time,
Helen @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog

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