During my last pregnancy, I found maternity jeans to be restrictive and uncomfortable. Perhaps I’m shaped funny or something, but I feel like I’m perpetually hiking my pants up, wriggling back down into them throughout the day with the most unladylike contortions! I hate that they’re marketed so that you need to purchase a full wardrobe for each trimester… and I imagine that being in my 7th pregnancy, I would get more use out of such an investment than most!
It was a great relief to discover stretchy knit skirts during my last pregnancy. How wonderful it felt to dress femininely yet feel as comfortable as I would be if I were sweatpants- more so maybe!
Sadly, that company I purchased from seems to have gone out of business, but during a visit to Pinterest I did find a very similar skirt tutorial that I fully intend to use one day.
This time, in addition to my wonderful knit skirts, I decided to make use of all those old maternity jeans I’ve accumulated over the past decade and refashion them into maternity jean skirts. Of course you can follow these methods with regular jeans as well and someday I will with all of my old jeans.
I’ve made 3 skirts in 3 different styles-
I’ve worn this skirt in public twice (I don’t get out much 😉 ) and was complimented both times. I split a maternity skirt up the inseam of each leg and then used the legs of a few other pairs of jeans to piece together the inside making sure that the split legs from the first pair were spread as far apart as allowable to give a lot of freedom for movement. I was feeling lazy and instead of creating a hem, I ran a stitch around the hemline to prevent too much fraying and just cut the edges close to the stitching.
The second skirt was made by splitting the pair of jeans up the inseam again, but this time instead of using several pairs of old jeans to piece the center, I only used one pair. With the second pair, I removed the each leg as high as I could, opened them up along the inseam, then lined the outside seam with the centers of the new skirt. I also lined up the existing hem lines on both pairs of pants so that I wouldn’t need to re-hem the skirt. I would advise using a boot-cut or flare leg jean in order to allow as much room as possible along the bottom.
The third skirt is by far my favorite. (And was the one I was wearing while baby wearing.) It provides the most room and fullest fit (my personal taste leans towards a nice full skirt). For this skirt, I cut the legs of the first pair of jeans off right across lower edge of the pockets. I opened the now detached legs up along the inseam and repeated the steps with a second pair of jeans so that I now had 4 full legs opened up. I pinned them, sewed them together, and sewed the tops of the now attached legs to the top of the first pair of jeans. (Make sure the fullest part of the legs is towards the floor to allow the most room for movement.) I made the hem just the same as I did in the first skirt except that to finish it, I notched the lower edge every inch or two and as it frays, it makes a little ruffly look.
Of course, I can’t take credit for any of these ideas. I found them similarly made all on Etsy, but by raiding my own jean stash, I was able to make them all for free!! They were so simple too that I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a couple pairs from a thrift store to dissect for a couple bucks each, enabling me to make a comfortable jean skirt for mere fraction of the cost of purchasing retail!
Heather says
30 May, 2014 atI use your third method and my husbands old jeans to make my jean skirts. I love it because I don’t have to sew pockets or a zipper – Yay! And I love sewing. I’ve found that not making a hem is best, since it curls up. I make a zigzag stitch near the bottom and then let it fray to the stitching.I also get many compliments.
I’ve even made a patchwork skirt with bits and pieces of fabric sewed into a large rectangle, I then gather it, and attach it to a pair of jeans I cut the legs off of. That one gets a lot of compliments too.