Denim Skirts from Bedskirts

Happy 4th of July! I hope you are all enjoying the holiday with people you love. Most of all, don't forget that we the citizens are what makes our country so great. If we cease to be good, so will our country. (Alexis de Tocqueville once said, "If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." It's so true!)

Today I'm sharing with you a project that I've had in my head for over a year ... jeans skirts from old jeans and bedskirts.

My daughter and I only wear skirts, and it's nearly impossible to find a nice denim skirt that doesn't have a slit the whole way up to your thigh. As a result, I have to get creative with our denim skirts.

My son is about one size ahead of my daughter, so I save his jeans as he wears out the knees. Then I cut off the legs and save the top part for these skirts.

My daughter is growing like a weed and will soon be too tall for the 3-4 denim skirts I had for her. So I decided the time was right to try my experiment.

Of course, the whole idea of adding fabric to the bottom of old jeans is not a new idea. However, using a bedskirt is something I've never seen before, but it makes the process so much easier because there's no gathering involved.

Let's take a look at how they turned out ...

I've had this bedskirt for several months now, and I knew I wanted to try one of these skirts with it. It was already ruffled (as most bedskirts are), so I just sewed it on, topstitched it, and it was done. My daughter loved it!

Here you can see how it fits her.

And this is what it looks like from the back. Since I had to cut high enough to get rid of the curl around the inseam, I ended up cutting into the bottom of the pockets. I've seen storebought ones that do this, so I didn't worry a bit about it. It looks really cute, and she loves having all those pockets.

I love eyelet fabric, but I wasn't totally sure what it would look like with denim. You know, eyelet can look pretty fancy if you use it right, and denim is a rather humble fabric. Once it was done, though, I loved it. So did my daughter, who declared it was her "wedding skirt." :)

I added a pink underskirt (another bedskirt) to this one, since you can see right through the holes in eyelet fabric.

Isn't it cute? As you can see, this one is long enough for her to wear it awhile.

Lastly, I used a ruffled hem from a vintage bedspread (the really thin, sheet-thickness kind that they used in the warmer months). I got this one at a yard sale for practically nothing (a whole bag of clothing for $1), and there were quite a few spots on it that didn't come out. However, I still had plenty of fabric once I worked around those spots.

Since this ruffle wasn't as long as the other two, I simply layered them. It was really quite easy, and this is the one she wears the most.

If I could change one thing about this skirt, I would have lined it, too. It's rather thin, and she doesn't want to wear a slip to play. I may go back and stitch a plain white bedskirt to the inside.

I'd love to see any denim skirts you've created! I'm in the market for a few myself, since I have such a hard time finding a good fit. (If it fits my waist, it's too small for my hips; if it fits my hips, it's too big for my waist.) I'm thinking of making a chambray A-line skirt, but I'd love to see some other ideas, too. Since I'm a SAHM now, I enjoy wearing my denim skirts almost every day. I need several of them!

I'm linking to ... Upcycled Awesome,