Restyling Jeans to Skirts

Yay! Its Frugal Friday over at one of my favorite sites Biblical Womanhood. I wanted to share a way I have saved money on clothing, in particular, skirts.

Last spring I decided I wanted to wear skirts at least 90% of the time. I have always considered myself to be a feminine girly girl but I realized I had let my work with kids become an excuse to live in jeans. I don't like to feel frumpy and I don't like to feel like "just a nanny" but I found myself falling into that mindset. Around the same time I was inspired by the posting some women did about wearing feminine dress throughout the week but I could not bring myself to throw away good clothing I already had. Plus, I was between work at the time and wanted to spend as little as possible on more clothing. I love buying second hand but even those expenditures can add up.

To my rescue came this quick project. While the picture shows a short skirt it is easily made below the knee or longer and gave me more ideas for restyling what I owned. A full length skirt can be made using an extra pair of jeans or a length of coordinating fabric for the inset. It was a new wardrobe of skirts for free! I already knew they fit too :) My jean skirts are great for an active day with kids, they are tough but can be trimmed various ways or made even more feminine with using various types fabric in the inset. I did this with some corderoy pants too for great winter skirts.

Now, I will tell you I am not a virtuoso at the sewing machine. I can sew a straight line but that's about it. As a matter of fact I passed this project on to my little sister who is ten and growing like a weed so all her jeans were just too short. She loved the idea of salvaging clothes she has and making it herself. She had the idea to make hers knee length and wear colorful long leggings underneath.

One day out at Old Navy (I love that store), I actually saw a skirt based on this look for $25. All I could think was "Woo-hoo! I got mine free!"