Little Girl’s Skirt From Khaki Pants

I was cleaning off my sewing machine yesterday (it tends to get piled up quickly) and came across a pair of torn khaki pants from one of my guys. The tear was not something that I could mend without it being noticeable but for some reason, I had held onto them anyway. As I looked at those pants, the wheels started turning while I wondered just what I could do with them…other than cut them up for rags. A little girl’s skirt came to my mind and this morning I knew I’d better seize the moment before the creative desire left me. Sooooo….here we go!

Here are the legs of the pants.

After thinking it through, I decided I would use a total of three panels. From the hem of the pants, I measured up 15 inches and marked it.

After measuring and marking the 15 inches on the front and back of the leg in several places, I cut that piece off.

Using a seam ripper, I took the stitches out of the inseam.

Here it is with the stitches taken out. The remaining seam will be the center back of the skirt.

Next, I measured the other pants leg 15 inches from the hem, and cut this one as well. Since I was only having a center panel in the front part of the skirt, I just cut the front part of the pants leg and then took both the inner and outer seams apart. Here it is:

The hem of the pants is going to be the waistband of the skirt. With the right sides together, I pinned the single panel to the double panel. I had to take a few stitches out of the pant hem to be able to pin it all the way.

I then sewed the single panel to the double panel on both sides.

Next, I ironed both seam allowances toward the middle of the front of the skirt.

Then, I sewed both seam allowances down, giving the front panel a topstitch look.

I then refolded the “waistband” of the skirt (pant hem) and sewed it back down…

…leaving an opening to insert the elastic.

To insert the elastic, I pinned a large safety pin to the end of elastic

and worked it through the waistband.

After I get a specific waist measurement for my GRANDdaughter, I will pull to desired waist measurement, sew elastic together, trim and then sew the waistband down.

For the hem, I turned the skirt inside out, folded the bottom edge down, and ironed it.