March is Go Green Month over at Sew Much Ado, and today I'm participating by showing you how to take an old pair of jeans and t-shirt and refashioning them into a cute maternity pencil skirt.
For this project, you'll need a pair of wide leg jeans, a jersey knit t-shirt, and the usual sewing equipment. I used a well loved pair of trouser jeans that I'd walked the hem off of, and a t-shirt that fit well, except it had shrunk in the wash and was too short.
I'm not going to provide many exact measurements in this tutorial, because you should be using clothes that already fit you reasonably well. Please use the guidelines below, but account for your own body type!
Also remove the waistband. These jeans were a low rise, so I didn't need to cut any lower than removing the waistband. If your jeans have a higher rise, you'll want to cut them lower in the front to accommodate your growing pregnant belly. Most importantly, you need to be able to pull the closed pants up over your hips, since this will be a pull-on skirt (no zipper or button openings).
(Please ignore my taped-together ruler. Oscar sure is cute, but he breaks things)
Turn the skirt right side out again - looks like a skirt now, huh? Press your new seams.
Try your skirt on and decide how long you want it to be. Mark the length and cut.
If you have a serger, now would be a good time to use it. If you don't have a serger, you can either leave your seams as is, or zig zag over them.
If you don't like the look of freshly hemmed denim, you could distress it a little bit with some sand paper.
Using a ruler and rotary cutter, cut straight down both sides, and across the top (removing the sleeves and collar).
Other tips for sewing on knit fabric:
- Use a ball point needle! This makes all the difference.
- Loosen your machine's tension.
- I like to use a walking foot - it has feed dogs on the foot, so the fabric is gripped from the top and bottom and feeds through the machine evenly. No slipping. :)
At this point I top-stitched over both seams using a straight stitch. I'm not sure this is absolutely necessary, but it strengthened the seam and I liked how it looked.
Fold the tube of knit fabric in on itself so it is two layers thick. The side seams should line up on the inside.
Pin in place on the sides, the front middle and back middle (4 pins total). The knit tube will be smaller than the waist of the skirt, but you will stretch it as you sew.
Using a zig zag stitch, sew around the entire waistband, stretching the knit tube to fit as you go. Double (or even triple) stitch for extra strength.
