Have you ever bought something thinking you got SUCH an amazing deal, only for it to be too loose, or worse...too tight? I had a day where my brain just refused to work and wanted to spend the time checking up on what all my favourite celebs are up to (yes stalker alert I know). I ended up indulging in some secondhand retail therapy and bought these pair of jeans second hand for what I thought was a pretty good deal ;) Sadly they were way too tight especially around the calves area, to be the point where I whinged every time I wore them that they were cutting off my blood supply. Yes my partner can attest that I can be a drama queen sometimes.
I enlisted the help of my crafting cubs to turn them into something I will be happy to wear. This is Bear's trusty guide to jeans splicing.
Materials needed:
1. 1 pair unwanted jeans
2. Coarse sandpaper
3. 6 jean buttons
4. 2 pieces of lightweight fusible interfacing around 2 inches wide x length of skirt
Step 1: Remove the Waistband and Rip Away at the Center Seams
I love using my Clover seam ripper for this: it slides through unwanted seams like hot knife on butter! I started off by removing the waistband carefully: this takes a bit of time as we want to avoid 'injuring' the belt loops.
I then removed the zip, and open up the center front seams (from the zipper down to the ankle) and center back seams (from the erm...backside down to the ankle)
Step 2: Trace and cut out your skirt pattern
Bear's tip: Use your favourite skirt pattern as a guide. I used one of my favourite skirts as a pattern piece as I don't actually have a go to skirt pattern yet.
I folded it neatly along the side seam, then laid it flat on the pants pieces. Using a washable pencil, I then traced around the skirt to get my pattern pieces.
I then cut out my skirt pieces.
Step 3: Join the center back seams
I then sew the center back seams (look for the pockets!) making sure to match the height of the pockets.
For this specimen, Bear failed the quality control check and I had to unpick and reposition the pockets as they were too close together. As you can see, I didn't trace very well LOL so I also measured the length to make sure it is even all around, and cut across to even out the skirt hem.
Step 4: Iron fusible interfacing on both sides of the center front piece
This is to give some stability to the area where I will be adding in jeans buttons later to make it a button down skirt!
Step 5: Reattach the waistband and belt loops
Enough said. Take care to make sure there isn't any excess waistband (for cases where your skirt waist is smaller than the original waist), and trim it first if you do!
Step 6: Finish the hem
I choose to do a distressed hem skirt(partly because I cut it too short to hem LOL). Using a small piece of coarse sandpaper, I annoy the hem just enough to give it the expensive ripped jeans look.
Alternatively, you can choose to turn the hem up 1/2 inch and stitch in place.
Step 7: Install jeans buttons
From the position of the original button, I measured and divided the length into 6 and carefully marked the button position. Initially I planned to use 5 buttons but they will be a little too far apart and I didn't want to flash the world LOL.
I then marked the position of the buttonholes, and some hammering later, we installed our first set of jeans buttons! Fun fact: I didn't actually own a hammer during jeans splicing 101 and had to have a very dented can of baked beans and pasta for dinner after! Another fun fact, cans of food do not make very good hammers, so only go down this route if you have a hankering for baked beans all week.
And voila! Jeans splicing complete!
How was your weekend?
Love,
Kendall and the Cubs̶
