Here it is the long awaited
sweat pants makeover. The sweat pants
are part of the set I made the jacket from, which I shared with you at he end
of June. The pants were warm and soft
but had a really odd fit to them so I never wore them much but hung onto them
because I loved the color which went with a lot of my fall clothing. After some creative thought I decided to make
a mid-calf length skirt to wear with my knee length suede boots. If you ever had a pair of pants or slacks and
thought they would look great as a skirt this is the tutorial for you. This is a long one with lots of how to
photos, enjoy.
These are the pants before I
went to work on them, nothing special.
The first thing I did was to
cut the inseam along the original stitching. I cut each leg up the seam from
the cuff to where the two legs joined each other in the middle. Next I very
carefully cut the remaining stitching at the crotch to release the center.
Now I had two flat pieces
with elastic at the waist and the curves of the front and back sections still
sewn together. Now came the fun part.
There was a lot of room in
the seat of the pants (back) so the first thing I did was to draw out a
straighter line from just below the elastic waist to just past the seat of the
pants leaving just a bit of curve. I pinned along the line then tried it on
inside out so I would not get stuck by the long pins I like to use.
Next was the front side of
the pants, way too much fabric to get a flat front on the skirt so I pinned out
the excess using the same method of drawing a line from the waist to the leg
easing out the overage. I tried it on
several times making adjustments to the pins before stitching it up.
At this point the fabric went
onto my dress form so I could see how it draped; you will notice there is now
what looks like shark fins on each side of the stitching. When I was sure of the fit I cut off each of
the fins creating a long tube of fabric ready for me to hem.
I knew I wanted a longer
skirt to wear with boots during the fall and winter months so I pinned what I
thought would make a good hem length.
Because they were originally tapered pants the skirt was pretty narrow
right about knee length which called for a V/vent in the back of the
skirt. I pulled out my seam ripper and
opened up the back to create the vent or V shape to allow for movement. I pressed up the seam allowance then pinned
it into place.
Now it was time to hem my
skirt, I did not need to do a lot of pressing and turn under on the skirt
because I was working with knit/fleece which does not ravel so a simple turn
under and stitch was all I needed to do. I did want decorative stitching to
match my jacket which was a double row of top stitching. To get this look I
stitched about a fourth of an inch from the edge then one fourth of an inch
from that creating a pretty tailored hem.
Stitching up the vent was the
final step in the creation of my skirt; I used a simple single straight stitch
to finish it up, all done.
My pants turned shirt is
finished and ready to wear with its matching jacket. I can wear it with the
line down the front or turn it and have the vent down one side. If I still had fantastic legs I could pull it
up and wear it as a mini dress with the jacket or I could have left the skirt
longer to make it a strapless dress, so many options.
It is shown here as the mini
dress with the jacket and the full length skirt with the jacket.
And finally a shot of it
blinged out with some crystal bow jewels sewn to the bottom of the skirt.
The before and after shots
really showcase what you can do when you re-purpose unused clothing into
clothing you can wear again, all with just a few simple changes.
Thanks for letting me share
my sweat pants to skirt makeover with you, I had a great time doing it, I hope
it encourages you to give re-purposing/upcycling a try with some of your old
clothing. My sweat suit makeover isn’t
complete until I use up all the rest of the pieces leftover from the skirt and
the jacket, you never know what those will become but I can guarantee you they
will be re-purposed in the very near future, keep watching for them.
See you soon.
Laurette
You might also like:
Sweatshirt to Jeweled Jacket
- Tutorial
Besides the things I occasionally sew for my girls, I have a niece that I love to spoil whenever possible. One such occasion, was this past July. She just turned 7 and she's all about Hello Kitty. Her bed set came with an extra top sheet that needed a purpose, or an upcycle as it may be. And there lay a naked window with the need for flare.
To make this top sheet into a set of curtain panels, I just needed a few cuts and decent amount of hem work. I stared by cutting off the extra fabric not needed for the boxy sized window. Making just one cut to leave a nice 30"x80" section of fabric left over, to use later for other items in the room. Then I cut the width of the top sheet in half vertically, to make two curtain panels. Then hemmed all the unfinished edges. Once each panel was hemmed and ready, I ironed down the top flap I wanted to give me enough fabric to create a rod pocket and a 2.5" ruffled top. Two sewn seams per panel, and the cutest set of curtains were born.
