Have you ever bought a pair of jeans, brought them home and did not like the fit? This is the perfect project for you. I bought a pair of jeans at the thrift store and did not like the fit, so instead of taking them back I decided to transform them into a jean skirt. An upcycling experiment. I had a jean skirt a few years ago but I probably donated it to the thrift store in a moment of Marie Kondo mania. So, I needed a jean skirt.

The first thing I did was head over to YouTube to find some help and guidance with the process. But….. I made a couple of cutting mistakes at the very beginning. I was too eager and did not pay enough attention to the videos to see exactly how the front and back seams were cut in the crotch area. If you look closely you will see that the thread and stitching is not the same in this area. Hopefully no one is looking too closely anyway. LOL.

Below is a list of the three videos I watched over and over, after the blooper at the beginning, to help me through the project:

This MimiG blue jeans to skirt video

IzzyMEIMsaab turning jeans into a knee length skirt

Charity Mazza making a skirt from a pair of jeans

I wanted the skirt to fit loosely around my body and I wanted to be able to move freely, and walk quickly and easily in it. Also, I wanted the skirt to be long enough so I could wear it to work and feel comfortable in it while sitting down.

A picture of a white female, showing knees to chest only, wearing a blue denim skirt and a white top, with a black belt.

The length is perfect. I love how it looks with my boots and tights.

a picture of a white woman, showing chest to knees, wearing a white t-shirt and knee length jean skirt with a side pocket. She is facing to the left.

I removed the pockets from an old pair of jeans one of my children had grown out of (I hate to throw away jean fabric) and added it to the side of the skirt for some visual interest. It’s a working pocket but I don’t use it. I tend to carry a purse with me so I don’t actually use my pockets very much. Kind of a controversial stance, I know. I actually have pants with no working pockets and I’m ok with that. I debated whether to add some machine embroidery to the pocket flap but decided against it, since I have no experience machine sewing embroidered embellishments on to fabric and I wanted this to be a quick project.

a white woman with grey hair, standing in front of a white wall. She is wearing a grey turtleneck shirt and a blue jean knee length skirt and black boots, with her hands on hips. She is wearing a blue necklace.
A white woman standing in front of a white wall.She is wearing a white tee shirt and a knee length jean skirt with a black belt, black tights and knee high black boots.

To fill up the gaps in the middle of the skirt, on both the front and back, I used a combination of the newly-thrifted jeans fabric and the older side pocket jean fabric. I like the how the combination of the two looks. This jean skirt will fit in with my existing wardrobe. I’ve already come up with a number of outfits, different ways of styling the skirt. It’s already become a staple in my wardrobe.

This was a fairly quick make. Once I started sewing it didn’t take very long, and I am a slow sewist, so I was happy with how easy it was. This is definitely a project I would try again. Is this the kind of project you would like to make? Let me know in the comments what you’re working on.

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