I have been looking, for a couple of years, to find a modest jean pencil skirt. Whenever I find one I like it is too expense. I just found one online by JCrew for $98. WOW! I have decided that I can just make my own with an old pair of jeans I have! (This would be perfect for those jeans that you love that have shrunk in the length or that have frayed hems where they drag slightly on the ground.)
Here’s what you need…
– 1 Pair of Jeans
– Top Stitching Thread
– Jean Needle (for your sewing machine)
– Seam Ripper
– Scissors
-Pins
Begin by cutting 12” off the length of your jeans.
This gave me several inches to work with when it came to hemming the bottom.
Now this next part doesn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would.
Unpick the seams on the inside of both legs, starting where the crotch of the pants comes together.
Please be very careful! I began to get a little to confident in myself and ripped a hole in the fabric with the seam ripper. (Luckily it was a part that wasn’t going to show in the end.)
After the inside of the legs are all finished, unpick the front where the bottom of the zipper is to where the crotch came together.
Unpick the back where… um… where I am pointing (not sure what this location would be called) to where the crotch used to come together.
Now this part can be a little tricky and you may need to have a little extra patience.
Lay the front of one of the legs over the other leg until you have a nice straight line all the way down.
Pin very well!!!
Pin the back so that you have a straight seam that will go all the way down.
I left open the bottom from about the top of the back of my knee. This is to add a little extra piece of fabric so that you will be able to walk in the skirt.
(Ignore my pins at the very top because I also took the waist in on the pants.)
Cut a rectangle of fabric out of one of the legs you cut off earlier.
Place the piece in teh back of the skirt where you want it to go.
VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure the grain of the fabric (in the added piece) is going the same way as the rest of the skirt.
When pinning this piece into place, make sure to fold all your raw edges in.
Make sure the back of the skirt is pinned very well.
Just an FYI: I tried on my skirt at this point, VERY CAREFULLY, to make sure it was going to fit correctly. It is much easier to move pins, than it is to unpick the entire thing again.
Time to begin sewing the front and back.
**Don’t forget to put the jean needle on, the top stitching thread in place of normal thread, and changing the tension of both the bobbin case and the top needle tension!**
I tried to duplicate what the stitching used to look like before I unpicked it.
(My jean had a slightly darker color where the stitching used to be. You can kind of see it in this picture. I just used those existing marks when I did my sewing.)
Front Stitching
Back Stitching
Once you have sewn it into place try it on. If it is how you want it, cut out the extra fabric leaving about 1/2” seams (you are welcome to finish the seams, but I just left mine raw).
Now have someone help you measure where you want the hem to be.
I measured the hem up 1/2” and rolled it up another 3/4”, pinned it into place, and sewed it with a 5/8” seam.
If you need to know how to iron and roll up a hem to prepare it please go here to see how I prepared the hem for my seven dollar dress, but don’t do the blind hem stitch.
You did it! You just made a modest jean pencil skirt out of an old pair of jeans.
Front View
Back View
