I have an area in my sewing room I call the Needs Work Department. Mostly what's there are thrift store finds that need just a little work, but there's also some things I made myself that need a bit of help. I know not all sewers like to, but I kind of enjoy remaking things. The way I think about it, the garment is already mostly done and with a just a bit more time spent, you can have a new garment.
So anyway, I had a wedding to go to. An outdoor wedding in May. In the evening. In Michigan. So what I really needed was a long skirt! I had five pair of pull on ponte pants in the Needs Work Department. Maybe I was going to make shorts out of them, I don't know. I do know that I never wore them. I got this bright idea I could make a skirt from them. First I cut off the hems, then the inseams. I flattened them out on my cutting table with what used to be the crotch on the outside. Then I used my french curve to chalk a new hip line. I sewed the new side seam leaving a slit at the bottom. I did the hems on my cover stitch machine (which was already threaded black) and voila!
New skirt in about a half hour.
These pants were made with Lois Cuttings One Seam Pants pattern. The reason I never wore them is they always felt like they were going to slide off my butt. Maybe that's because I have the hips of a toilet paper tube. But because the pants didn't have an outside seam turning them into a straight skirt worked great. I guess that makes this a No Seam skirt!
So what's in your Needs Work Department?
Update
The five finished skirts:
Two grey, three black, various lengths. They will be getting a lot more use now than when they were pants!
