denim skirt makeover TUTORIAL and denim distressing tips

 

You probably recognize this flirty denim skirt! :) This was my project for Week 1 at SYTYC. Thanks to Carrie for reminding me I had not posted my tutorial yet. oops! Got a little side tracked there. Anyways, here ya go! 

 

This is the not-so-fab Before pic. Very blah skirt, huh.

I am going to apologize right now for a few poor pictures. I made this skirt over several days in different lighting, so it's going to change colors from step to step.

 

First I removed the 2 side pockets.

 Then I cut right above the pockets, keep all fabric that you cut off including the pockets. You'll used them later.

  

Then from the bottom section that you cut off, cut a 4 inch strip and sew the strip to the bottom of the skirt. I used heavy duty thread. 

Be sure to finish your seam with a serger or a zig zag seam. And don't forget to iron! Ironing is very important to make the skirt look finished. 

Next, cut off the old hem line from the skirt so that you have a 4.5 inch strip. You will use this to be the hem of your updated skirt. {yay! no hemming!!}I also cut off the tops of my pockets {they're hemmed exactly the same as the bottom} and sewed them together and then onto this bottom strip so that I had extra length for the bottom ruffle.

Sew a basting stitch across the top and gather.  Definitely use a heavy duty thread here or you'll just break your thread trying to gather the denim.

 

Then sew the gathered hem line to the bottom of your skirt.

Next, you'll cut 2" by 36" strip of denim from your remaining fabric. ( I reused almost the entire skirt. Very little was wasted.) Sew wrong sides together to create a tube using a basting stitch. (you're going to gather this strip as well in a minute)

 

Iron flat the now 1" tube. 

  

Now gather the 1" tube.

Next, you'll pin the gathered tube onto your skirt starting with the outer circle. Use plenty of pins!

You'll want to sew one circle (or layer) of the flower at a time. After you sew one layer, then pin the next, and sew that layer, etc. Overlap the layers to cover the seam of the previous layer. Just to warn you, the center will be very thick. Go slow when you get to it. Your machine may not like you very much :)

Should look something like this. 

(I later removed the white thread you see in the center)

Now for the fun part! 

Distressing your Denim

I read several articles on how to distress denim. I combined several ideas, tweaked a few, and basically, just did my own thing. Here's what I did.

I put the skirt on and then grabbed course grit sand paper (all the articles say to use a fine grit, I'm too impatient.) and then started sanding away. 

• I sat and sanded the folds to create the "cat's whiskers" look. 
• I then stood up and standing down the top of my thighs to create the "thigh lines". 
• To create a hole, all you need to do is sand down so the denim is thin and you see a few strings.
• Be careful not to get carried away. You're going to wash the skirt in a second and it's going to amplify all the sanding/hole making that you did. a 1/4" hole right now, will equate to a 1" hole after washing and drying. 
• Then I roughed up the hem, the edges of the flower.
• I decided I wanted an overall lighter skirt as well. So I lightly sanded over the entire skirt. (warning, this takes a long time even for a small item like my skirt)

 This was my floor after I was done sanding. Gross! If the weather had been warmer, I would have done this outside. But it does vacuum very well. Oh and just a little fyi, your boogers are going to be blue for the next 2 days!! ;)

 

This is what my skirt looked like after all the sanding. Take careful note how much it changes in a second.

  After sanding and distressing,

• I then soaked the skirt in fabric softener. Seriously, coat the thing. 
• Lots of articles say to wash the denim with a pair of tennis shoes. I just washed my skirt with some towels. Hey, come on. I needed some clean towels. ;)
• Dry on high heat.
• None of the articles tell you this, but washing your skirt soaked in fabric softener, makes it smell VERY strongly like fabric softener. As in, you walk into a room and burn everyone's noses with the smell!  Seriously.
• So I washed my skirt again to get out some of the fabric softener smell (sans softener this time around). This helped, but it still smells pretty flowery. 

Ok, now for the reveal that I'm sure you've never seen before... oh wait.....

 

 

The more you wear and wash your skirt, the more natural distressing you'll get.

**And if you're like me and have to hem like all your jeans (gosh how I love being short...) sanding/distressing the new hem of your jeans will help blend with the rest of your jeans so they don't look like they just got cut off (like they were).**