Refashion Friday Inspiration: Front Zip Panelled Denim Mini Skirt

First up, I want to say a MASSIVE thank you for the many sweet and supportive comments left in response to my post on Wednesday about Pat and my recent redundancies and our new plans. To say that I was touched by the degree of e-love we've received doesn't go half way to sufficiently expressing how I feel. THANK YOU all so much.

Now on to what I can give back to the online sewing community: some project inspiration. Today's Refashion Friday inspiration, like most of the things I share each week, is argueably more of a re-make than a re-fashion, which of course depends on your interpretation of the definitions of those words. Anyways, this skirt started out as two pairs of unwanted men's jeans. If you recall from my previous post on How to Select Jeans to Refashion, I spoke about how there are basically two types of projects you can create from secondhand jeans: projects that have very clearly formerly been a pair of jeans (like the scallop hem denim jeans cut-offs); and projects that use jeans as a source of denim fabric. Today's creation falls firmly into the latter category.

I made the pattern by starting with McCalls M5590, the one I used to create my denim high waist bow skirt. I traced off the pieces, shortened it to a mini using the length of my chosen zip as a guide, then split both the front and back pieces into two by continuing the lines down from the front and back darts. These four narrower pattern pieces (plus facings) can now fit onto the leg sections of the deconstructed jeans.

The front open-ended zip was stitched on the outside so the zip tape is exposed and the metal teeth are clearly visible. Please remember to change your machine needles when stitching denim. Buy yourself some 100/16 or even 110/18 needles: your machine will thank you and you're less likely to find yourself swearing like a sailor in frustration!

Happy sewing and happy weekend.