FYI


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Skirting the Issue

Why, hello! Let me skirt the issue today. Here is a little crafty thing I did - and which I had been meaning to do for ages. I have lately discovered skirts. For a long time I never wore any. My confirmation way back in 1852 1984 was probably the last time I was seen in a skirt. Ah, no, actually, it wasn't - I wore an unbelievable pleated affair to the then current boyfriend's fraternity do. (Not sure what to be more disgusted about - the frumpy skirt or the absolutely inacceptable fraternity sh*t that I put up with...) Anyhow, it's taken me yeeeeears - and several kilos of shed weight - to dare don a skirt. And now I quite like them. So much so, that I took my scissors to a pair of old trousers and made the snip.




They are not the hippest thing anymore, but you'll remember these skirts that looked like they had been fashioned from a pair of trousers. Well, they were. To get the right length of skirt, I placed my favourite shop-bought skirt on top of the trousers and then cut the legs off the trousers, leaving some extra material for the hem. The cut off bits I put aside.

Then I took the scissors to the top bit of the trousers, carefully cutting open the seams in the middle, all the way along the seam, right over the crotch.

Back to the cut off legs. I cut those along the side seams, too, receiving 2 separate pieces of material per leg. Then I placed one of those pieces inside, under the front of the top trouser bit and pinned it in place. Make sure you get it all smooth and right. (It probably would have helped if I had ironed the trousers before starting this project - the pictures would have looked better, too...)


For the next step I did not take a picture - having everything pinned into place, I sewed the skirt together. To give my skirt a bit of a jeans-y kind of look, I used thread in a contrasting colour and sewed a double seam. Bingo.









So, that is it - a new skirt from an old pair of trousers. Dead easy, took about an hour in all. And I am a fluky seamstress - but no pattern needed. Now, it's obviously not the chicest of garments, but it's alright.


Best,