Refashioned skirt

I have moved into Jon's one-bedroom apartment, and we don't have room for my sewing stuff right now. We're also going to be gone most of the summer, and I should be working hard on my thesis, so I don't have time to sew anyway, but I miss it. So I'm sewing vicariously through my old projects.

My sister, who is five years younger than I am, is the same height as I am, but we have very different builds. I have almost no upper-body strength, and she can carry a harp up a flight of stairs by herself! By the time I was in high school, I was getting her outgrown clothes instead of the other way around, and now we can't really share clothes, which is a bummer because she has lots of pretty ones! Sometime when I was in high school, she gave me this pair of pants. I think they were wide-leg, low-rise, ankle-length pants at the time. The label describes them as "retro fit," whatever that is. At the time, the place where the pants sat on my hips was low enough that it made the crotch way too low, so I converted it to a skirt. As you can see, even though my hips have filled out a bit since I first made this, the waist is still pretty low.

To make these, I ripped out the inner leg and crotch seams from just below the fly. I sewed the back legs together the way they naturally fell and topstitched the crotch seam down in the front. I think at the time, that style of mini jean skirt was popular, so I almost cut the skirt off where the front seams met, but I decided I liked the long length. I also considered sewing a panel from the back to the front vent or using a contrast panel, but I didn't end up doing that. I think that would have limited my motion more. As it is, the skirt is narrow enough that I put a lot of strain on it when I ride my bike, so the front seam is ripping out a bit at the bottom.

In taking these pictures, I'm also noticing a lot of stains, so I guess I should wash it, huh? I don't wear this skirt a lot because of the biking difficulty, but I was on foot yesterday, and I wore it to an outdoor art fair and for walking around our neighborhood. I didn't get a picture with my full outfit, which included a cute straw hat. I think it's a cute skirt for a casual outdoor day, and it was perfect for yesterday's weather, which was a little cool sometimes and a little warm sometimes.