So, I haven’t blogged in months, and now I’m jumping back into it just in time for Kids Clothes Week Winter 2015. So nice of me to make an appearance, huh? There actually has been a lot of sewing going on, just not much blogging. We’ll have time for catching up soon enough. But for now, let’s talk Kids Clothes Week, shall we?

This season’s theme is upcycling – giving a piece of clothing (typically a previously worn item of clothing) a whole new life by converting it into something new. Luckily my mom and my sister know I’m always eager for hand-me-downs to play around with for sewing projects. That, combined with items I’ve curated from Goodwill and the clearance racks at department stores, provided me with plenty of inspiration for this challenge.

First up…. a vintage J. Crew long skirt that has been converted into a girl’s skirt with a deep inverted pleat.

Here’s the skirt in all of it’s original glory.

This was my mom’s skirt. Confession — I had the same skirt in a hunter green background, rather than blue. I got a lot of wear out of that skirt. And, I swear, my mom and I did not wear them at the same time! Timeframe: late ’80s to early ’90s.

The skirt is a lightweight cotton twill. Years of wear and washing have made it so soft. Interestingly, the original size eight waistband measured just shy of 27 inches. Nothing like the vanity sizing we have today! I suppose, too, this skirt was from an era when skirts and pants were worn on our actual waists, not the low waist. I chose to save myself any unnecessary anguish that would be associated with attempting to fit into the skirt today!

I made the converted skirt a girl’s size 6. My daughter, currently three years old, likely won’t fit it for a couple years, but as I contemplated my intended remake of the skirt it just seemed like this style would wear better on a slightly older girl — and I had plenty of fabric to accommodate a larger size, so I went with it. One current drawback is that I can’t show you photos of the skirt being modeled live. Sorry, you’ll have to suffer through boring hanger shots.

Overall the conversion was pretty straightforward. I started by chopping off a whole bunch of length from the original skirt. I cut the skirt to an 18 inch length, which allowed for a nice thick hem on what should be a knee length skirt, and still left me with a fair amount of leftover fabric for a potential other project from this print.

Since the skirt had a separate waistband, I unpicked about 6 inches of the front center skirt where the waistband attached to the skirt to make it easier to create the deep inverted pleat. I feared that unpicking the waisband would be difficult and tedious, but the stitches gave way very easily. Like buttah, I tell you. A benefit of the skirt’s age, no doubt.

I then cut away a portion of the front center of the skirt to allow a space for the contrast fabric. There was enough fabric to make the pleat using the original fabric, but I thought the contrast fabric would liven things up a bit and highlight the pleat.

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And then, I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the process. Oops. It got late. I was tired. And stopping sewing to photograph is just not a natural occurrence for me.

So let me just quickly tell you what I did. I’ll use my words, like a big girl. (Can you tell this a frequent topic of late in our household? Terrible threes, anyone?)

I took the waistband in a few inches by simply cutting out a portion of the original waistband and sewing the remaining waistband back together. Then I sewed a contrast piece of fabric (actually two layers of handkerchief-weight ivory linen basted together as one piece) to the existing skirt fabric lengthwise. I then folded and basted the inverted pleat, and then fit the new, pleated skirt front back into the unpicked portion of the waistband and sewed it shut. Finally, I hemmed the skirt with a wide 1.5 inch hem.

Ta da…

Being able to easily separate the original waistband from the skirt was key to the ease of this project. It allowed me to use a contrast fabric, make the pleat and reduce the waist size without having to totally hack up the skirt. And I love the clean look of the separate waistband for this style, as opposed to a bulky elasticized waist.

I was also able to retain the original back invisible zipper and button closure. Such nice features that I most likely would have avoided for a child’s skirt project (mean mommy!). This upcycling stuff is pretty nice – I like having someone else do the heavy lifting for me. A girl could get used to this!

Ooh, and pockets, too! Thank you, J. Crew. Your contributions are appreciated!

Okay, well, … so I guess I’ll just throw this in the closet now and wait a couple years…. Kind of an anticlimactic end to this project.

Have a great start to your week, and stay tuned for more upcycled creations this week. And, check out the kids clothes week blog for a peek at what others are sewing.