DIY Ruffled Denim Skirt

by Myra Hope

A few days ago, my sister asked me when I was going to get some clothes that fit and didn’t look like they were about to fall off. {blush} I figured it was time to come up with a new denim skirt for summer. I’m super excited with how it turned out! When Ridley saw it for the first time he said, “Oh wow, pity {pretty}!” :)

Ruffled Denim Skirt

For those of you who will ask, yes I have a ginormous scar on my right leg. I sliced my leg open on our wood heater when I was twelve. I was trying out my non-existent acrobatic skills. {1st mistake: running inside – 2nd mistake: attempting to jump over toys – 3rd mistake: flipping a stool and falling into the heater}. After twenty-two stitches and many hours in the ER on a Saturday night, I went home on crutches. Lesson learned, but I’ll always have the scar.

Umkay, enough of the infomercial…back to the skirt. I’ve been so inspired by my friend Jen from Tatertots & Jello who is a refashioning queen. Seriously, the girl is brilliant! If you have a sewing machine and can cut and sew a straight line, you can make this skirt {or a similar version}!

I found my skirt at Cato on sale for $14.99. I was looking for a lighter wash and I loved the pockets!

What I didn’t love was the length. I’m tall and prefer either floor length skirts or knee length. This above ankle length is uncomfortable to me and mid-calf lengths make me look awkward too. Ha! I decided to cut off the skirt at my knee and then add fabric ruffles.

I picked up 3/8 of a yard of two fabrics from Hobby Lobby where I used a 40% off coupon {Did you know that they accept coupons off your phone? LOVE it!}, so the cost was minimal at less than $3.00.

I cut each fabric into 3″ strips. I didn’t use all the fabric, but I had 3 – 3″ strips of each. I may make some fabric accessories out of the scraps.

I sewed the fabric strips {right sides together} end to end for the bottom ruffle . Then I sewed a wide stitch seam on one side of the long strip. It took a few minutes to pull the thread and gather the fabric evenly. After that was done, I pinned it to the skirt and sewed it on, right over the gathering stitch. To neatly finish the end of the ruffle {where the strip comes together}, I turned under one side and stitched it down.

For the second layer, I sewed the strips end to end with right sides together. Then I turned one edge over about an inch to give the top layer a finished look. Then I stitched the edge with a wide stitch {through both layers of fabric} so I could gather the long strip. Once I got the fabric gathered {you have to pull the thread gently when you’re gathering double layers}, I pinned it in place over the bottom ruffle.

I finished the end of the top ruffle the same way as the bottom layer by turning under the top edge and sewing it down. This is SO easy y’all!

With just $3.00 and about an hour {my hour was broken into sections}, I took this skirt from drab {on me} to fab!