The first rule to upcycling is that everything is fabric. No matter what is is constructed as currently, it it just fabric waiting to be redesigned.
The second rule is that nothing is limited. Previously, I showed you how to make skirts quickly and easily out of a simple pillowcase. This is easy and relatively inexpensive, but it is also limited to a certain size range. If you need a bigger size or simply like a bit of room in your skirts, then you want to add some panels.
Materials:
At least two pillowcases. You can add as many panels as you’d like.
Elastic or a drawstring to fit your waist.
Sewing machine, thread, scissors, measuring tape.
Instructions:
1. Measure the width of your pillow cases. This lets you know how much you have to work with. Remember that you are going to open them up, so if your pillow case is 20 inches wide, you have twice that to work with. Compare that to your waist and how full you’d like your skirt to be. Your strips can be narrow, wide, or narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. There is no real rule; just be sure you have enough strips to be wide enough for your waist and that you have enough pillowcases for your strips.
2. Cut your strips. I wanted this skirt to be relatively uniform, so my strips did not flare much. However, the skirt pictured later had a much more prominent flare, which meant each strip started off narrow at the top and grew wider at the bottom. Make sure that the widths of the top add up to be wide enough for your waist. If you have a 36 inch waist (or hips, where I prefer to wear mine), you’ll want the tops of your strips to add up to at least 38 or 40 inches, to allow for some gathering with the elastic or drawstring. The raw edge of fabric should be the top, and the pillowcase edging should be the bottom. For uniformity, I placed my measuring tape on the pillowcase and followed the line. Chalk or a fabric pen would be helpful, too.
3. Put your strips in order. Make sure you have enough and that they are in the order you want them to be.
If you are using just two pillowcases, make sure that they alternate all the way around; you don’t want to have two of the same color connected.
4. Sew the panels together, right sides together. Do one section at a time until you just have to sew the last panel to the first. The important thing here is to make sure the bottoms are perfectly aligned so that you don’t have to hem it. The top does not have to be perfect at this stage.
5. Make an elastic or drawstring casing. Almost finished! If your tops are uneven, you may want to trim them down before you sew. Otherwise, turn the top down as much as is needed for your elastic or drawstring and sew around, stopping just short of where you began so that you can run the elastic or drawstring through the casing.
6. Run your elastic or drawstring and finish as necessary. If you used a drawstring, all you will need to do is run it through the casing. It helps to attach a safety pin or something to it so you can push it through more easily. If you use elastic, sew up the gap that you left, and you have a skirt!
Optional Finishing Touches: If you’d like your skirt to have a more finished touch, try pressing the seams open, making a liner, and letting it hang for a few days after you make it to help the fabric settle.
Jessica says
Cute! I want to try this with some curtains I got at IKEA. You are right–anything that is made with material can be used as fabric for upcycling! Have you ever tried to do a lining with a tulle edge? I want to give my skirt a little more oomph at the bottom but haven’t mastered that technique yet. Thanks for posting!