Tutorial: How to Turn Jeans into a Skirt

After doing a round of spring cleaning, you're bound to create a pile of old jeans you just can't wear anymore. You may be tempted to throw them away, but wait...you can make cute skirts out of them to wear all summer long! This supersimple technique will save you money and keep you looking cool.

Start by cutting the bottom off your jeans legs to the length you want your skirt to be.


Then, cut the inseam of your jeans like so:





Continue the cut made at the inseams up the center front and center back seams of the skirt as well.



Then, lay one side of the cut material over the other and pin like so:



Do the same in the back.



Then, run two lines of stitching over the material to secure the pinned fabric both in the front and in the back.




Once your fabric is sewn down, you can turn the skirt inside out and trim away the excess fabric with pinking shears to prevent fraying.




You can then hem the bottom or let it fray a bit, it's up to you.

You are now the proud owner of a new skirt!

How to Hem a Garment: Fast and Easy

Roll the bottom edge of your garment over twice so that all raw edges are concealed. Pin to secure. Stitch all around as close to the top edge as you can. Press. You are done.

Labs Tutorial: Invisible Zippers - Easier than You Thought!

Here's a quick and easy way to insert an invisible zipper. First, unzip your zipper and place face down on the right side of your garment like so:



Using a zipper foot, sew a line of stitches as close to the zipper teeth as you can get without actually touching them with the needle.



Once you have one side down, pin the other side in the same manner (zipper face down on right side of fabric.) Before sewing, zip your zipper to test that it closes properly. If it is twisted, correct and re-pin. Use the zipper foot and secure with a line of stitches. Be sure to backstitch to reinforce your sewing.

You're almost done! If your zipper is longer than the opening you wish to create, you can trim it to your desired length and put a horizontal line of stitches across your zipper to create your own zipper stop. Be sure to leave some extra zipper length below the zipper stop (about an inch).



Now, using a standard foot, close up the rest of the seam below the zipper being sure to continue your stitches all the way to where the zipper ends to make sure there are no holes. Press seam open.



Zipper insertion is now complete!

Labs Tutorial: How to Make a Yoked Skirt

Here is a simple method for creating a yoked skirt. First, make a pattern for the yoke. This pattern should be based on the measurements of the person who will be wearing the skirt. This yoke has a subtle v shape. Take your waist measurement and divide it in half and then add 5/8" for the seam allowance. For example, if your measurement is 31", divide that in half (15.5") and add 5/8" (16 1/8"). Use this measurement to create your yoke pattern, which should look like this:



Place this pattern piece on the fabric. The fabric should be folded and the center front of the pattern should be placed on the fold. Pin to secure.



Cut carefully around your pattern piece. Take out pins. Place on folded fabric and cut the same piece again. Now you have the two pieces necessary to make your yoke: the yoke and the yoke facing.



Pin the yoke pieces right sides together and sew across the top.



Flip your yoke pieces so they are wrong sides together. Press along seam to ensure they are flat.

Next, cut your skirt piece. Since this is a gathered skirt the measurements don't have to be exact. I used a piece that was 19" x 50". The 50" will be gathered and pinned to the yoke so that the finished skirt will be 19" long and 31" around the waist.



To add gathers, baste the skirt piece across the top 5/8" from the edge. You can either do this by hand or on your machine using a long stitch length. Then, pull the basting thread until the skirt gathers to your liking.



Next, pin the bottom edge of the yoke and the top edge of the skirt right sides together.



Stitch with your machine.



Your skirt should now look like this:



To finish, add a zipper closure and hem around the bottom. I will be doing follow up tutorials on how to do these things, but for now have fun making yokes!