Sewing Leather Pants Into a Skirt

Leather pants are just like leather skirts because they never go out of style. They are also durable and are easy to take care of. You may have had your pair of leather pants for awhile, and now you're itching for a skirt instead. I've seen leather skirts in clothing stores cost sixty bucks and on up. That can really make a dent in your clothing budget! So, why not recycle your pants into a sexy, hot leather skirt instead? You can design your new skirt so it becomes an ultra mini seventeen, or a nineteen, or a longer twenty-four inch piece of fashion that will attract attention like a magnet.

Another advantage of recycling a pair of leather pants is that they're already broken in to fit your body. Your new skirt won't feel as stiff, especially if it's made of lambskin leather.

Now the the first step in this project is to make sure your leather pants are clean. If they're not, then follow the manufacturer's care tag to have them cleaned. Then, after they are laundered and dried, turn them inside out. Stretch them out on a table. You'll need to figure out how long you want your new skirt to be. Seventeen, nineteen, and twenty-four seem to be the most popular lengths. Let's say, for the sake of an example, that you decide to make your skirt nineteen inches long. Use a measuring tape and hold one end of it against the waist band of your pants. Then, measure down each leg nineteen inches and mark those spots with a piece of white chalk. Add two inches to the nineteen, and use your measuring tape again to mark the new length. Don't worry, your skirt won't be any longer than nineteen inches. You just need the added two inches for the hem. Finally, use a straight ruler or a yardstick and the white chalk to draw lines across the marks on both legs.

The second step is to use a pair of sharp scissors to cut the legs off of your leather pants. Next, use a seam ripper to carefully rip out the seams on the inside of the legs and in the crotch. Just start at the bottom of one leg and work your way up, around the crotch, and down the other side. It shouldn't take any time at all.

Once that's done, use the seam ripper again to remove the seam from the back and front of your leather shorts. Your shorts should now be relatively flat, with a wide opening at the bottom. While you're at it, rip the seams out of the legs as well.

The third step in this project is to use the measuring tape to measure the "V" spaces in the front and the back of your open shorts. You'll need to measure and cut out two pieces from the leather leg material to fill the spaces in.

The fourth step is to fit the "V" shaped pieces of leather into the front and back of the shorts. Use straight pins to hold them in place. Use a pair of sharp scissors to cut off any excess material.

Before you move onto the next step, carefully try the leather skirt on to make sure it fits. If it doesn't, or if it's a bit too tight to be comfortable, then unpin the leather inserts and reposition them.

Finally, the fifth step in this recycling project is to use your sewing machine to sew the pieces of leather in place. Make sure, before you start sewing, that the color of the thread that's in your machine matches the color of the thread that's already in the rest of the leather.

Turn up the hem of your new leather skirt and pin it up with straight pins. Use your sewing machine to sew the hem in place. You can also add studs to your leather skirt or a side zipper, if you choose.