Misadventures in Potching a Jean Skirt

I made a jean skirt today from a pair of jeans. I was given a new pair of jeans, but I didn't like how the legs tapered at the bottom. . . and I have been wanting a jean skirt. . . so, here I go.

As my friend Trina would say, this is not sewing - this is potching! And boy did I feel like I botched, I mean potched, this one.

I can't even give you directions on how I did it because I had to redo many of the steps. But here are some photos of my misadventure!


When I started this, I knew 2 things. One, I wanted the front part to be straight down. Now I understand why Not Martha said don't bother attempting to do this! It looks nice here though, doesn't it?

Inside view of my straight seem.

Laying out the fabric for the middle piece.

Things are getting a little harry by now. I had to rip out the middle piece and start over.

I did not attempt a straight seem on the back and it went much smoother.

Because I had to rip out the front piece, I had to make the back piece work for both sides. It made for an interesting salsa style flip-de-do. Oh, and the second thing I knew I wanted was an "inside out" look for the middle. Here I am using lightweight denim, wrong side out, for the middle. And to go with that look, I planned to turn the bottom cuff up, like I used to wear my jeans way back when.

Getting ready to flip the cuffs up

and me modeling the skirt.


Now that I know what not to do, I think it will be much easier next time! It might be a good idea to read some directions first though.