Make a Simple Skirt & Leggings, Notes

Notes: Make a Simple Skirt & Leggings From Wool Sweaters

(As shown in last Friday’s Wool Skirts and Leggings refashioned from Wool Sweaters)

1) I bought three wool sweaters at a thrift store. The bigger the better. Cotton or cotton/ramie would work too, but it’s winter, and besides being warm and tough, wool is classy.

2) I washed & dried the sweaters in my washing machine/dryer. In lingerie bags (mesh), to keep fibers smooth.  This shrinks them, yes, but it also tightens/thickens the fibers so that my final product will be sturdy…and machine washable (but probably not dryer-dryable).

3) Using a favorite skirt from my closet as a template/pattern, I made sure there actually was room for a skirt in each of the sweaters before I cut the necks and sleeves off. A straight/pencil skirt’s shape is almost square, curving subtly around the hips. (I didn’t make a skirt out of the white sweater.   I did use the arms for my leggings; the body waits for a later project).

By the way: When I’ve got repurposing on my mind, I like to look at clothing as yardage, not necessarily as sweaters, blouses, dresses, etc. I like big, empty spaces, like full sleeves, big bodies, full skirts. More room to cut out new shapes. There are other fun things to look for too when I’m refashioning, like texture (pleats, tucks, lace, buttons) and details…but we’ll chat about that another time.

4) I decided that the bottom of the sweater, which had a finished edge, would be the bottom of my skirt, saving me from a potentially problematic hem. I curved the waist in, cutting the last corner of sleeve off the top (waist) corners of both the red and black sweaters-turned-skirts. This is a two piece skirt; front and back. Simple, simple…identical pieces.

5) I sewed the skirt sides together…carefully (a serger would be best; I used my machine and zig-zagged a tight stitch) so that my skirt doesn’t come unravelled or run….

6) …And after sewing the side seams, I finished the top (waist edge) with a tight zig zag, and then zig-zagged thin elastic to the top inside edge of the back of the skirt, stretching the elastic slightly as I stitched. This gave the waist just enough grip to stay wherever I want it…up on my waist, hanging on my hips. I didn’t finish the waist any more than this; I don’t intend for it to show, and I didn’t want the bulk of a rolled over waistband to show beneath my top.

7) Embellishing the skirt was almost as fun as making the leggings. I simply cut petals from scraps of white sweater, and a black center from scraps of black sweater, pinned the flower petal by petal on the red skirt, and zig-zag machine stitched in place.

LEGGINGS:

8)  I made leggings from the sleeves of my black and white sweaters.

9)  I cut the four arms (2 black, 2 white) identically, making sure the depth of each stripe matched (black to white) as I cut up the arm. Notice that the width of the sweater arms taper from wrist to shoulder; this worked to my advantage. I used narrow wrist stripes at the ankles (another edge I didn’t have to hem), slightly wider stripes at the calves tapering to narrower at the knee, and wider stripes from the upper arm and shoulder up the thigh.

10) I laid out each legging piece by piece to make sure I liked the shape and to make sure the leggings would match each other before sewing. I made sure I sewed each legging in order (I went bottom to top). It would be smart to sew sweater leggings on a serger.

11) Voila! The ankles’ edge is finished because it used to be the cream sweater’s wrist, and the legging’s thigh edge could be finished similar to the wool skirts’ waist edge, with lingerie elastic. Or you could just tuck it under your spanx. (=

The End.