Made with Moxie: Upcycled Fat Quarter Skirt

August 29, 2012

Upcycled Fat Quarter Skirt

Earlier this week I showed you how to make The Fat Quarter Skirt. Here are some cute skirts I made the same day using some upcycled material.

upcycling: taking something you would otherwise throw out and making it into something else.

Warning! Upcycling can lead to a new level of hording fabric collection. In our house we have a basket of tshirts and other pieces of clothing that have stains or tears or some other reason why it can't be worn anymore and shouldn't go to the Goodwill, but is still good for something. All our jeans go into a box for the someday when I finally make a jean quilt. Adult tshirts become dresses for Jane
or hats for Jimmy.

I had a pair of khakis that I chopped into shorts this summer. Their fabric has a nice hand (feel) to is and had a little stretch, so I kept the bottom legs that I cut off to make Jane two skirts. The bonus to using them for these skirts is that you can utilize the pant hem as your skirt hem.
The only different thing you need to do from the instructions on the The Fat Quarter Skirt tutorial is you will need to most likely sew three seams to make your skirt 18" wide, unless of course you have really wide pants. You can see my three seams in the picture above. I just made sure to center a panel in the front of the skirt.
I used some discontinued fabric samples my friend, Erin, sent me along with some Pellon Wonder Under to make cute appliques for the skirts.
\ You could also sew some ribbon or rickrack around the skirt hem too to add a decorative detail. Or leave them plain for a preppy look. Oooh, or do a little hand embroidery of an alligator!
They're great little rough and tumble skirts, and they save some trash from being added to a landfill. Heck, these two skirts only cost me thread and elastic.
Don't forget to take pictures of any Upcycled Skirts you make and upload pictures to the Made with Moxie Flickr group.