Refashion Sweatpants Into a Cute Skirt!

I had an old, holey pair of sweatpants, but in this 100 degree heat what I really needed is a cute skirt! This Instructable will take you through refashioning sweatpants into a comfortable skirt perfect for summer.

To do this refashion you will need:

Old Sweatpants
Scissors
Matching Thread
Pins
Sewing Machine (you could do hand sewing if you don't have one currently)
Measuring Tape

Optional -
Dress Form or someone to help you pin
Seam Ripper (I just cut the seams out)

Cut off the legs of the sweats at the crotch. Try to cut straight as this will help in later steps, but if you didn't (like me) then it can be easily fixed in the later steps.

Depending on the size of your sweatpants, you could simply hem the bottom and stop here. I preferred a longer skirt so I continued on with the transformation.

If there are any holes in the fabric patch them using a straight stich. This is the easiest method, and the line that was created will be covered up with the pockets.

I feel that it is very important for everything to have pockets, so I cut the side seams so that I could add them.

I created the pockets from the leftover material in the legs. Roll down the top and the bottom of the pockets and top stitch. Although this isn’t required when working with knits since they don’t fray, I think that it gives a more professional feel. You could also use a contrasting thread to make the topstitching stand out. I used matching because my top stitching (like my cutting) isn’t perfectly straight.

I decided to flip the skirt so that the original waist was the new hem since it was so large.
The pockets will be placed on opposite panels of the skirt. Pin them and baste (a long stitch used to hold things in place while the garment is being constructed) the skirt back together. Don't worry about fit in this step, it will be adjusted next.

Finally, top stitch the bottom of the pockets and part of the top. Make sure that you can still fit your hand in them!

Now it is time to adjust the skirt to fit. Turn it inside out and put it on yourself. Pin the seams so that the skirt will fit comfortably around your waist. The amount will depend on the beginning size of your sweats. Sew these new seams (make sure to adjust your stitch length after basting!) I used the zigzag stitch because of the stretchiness of the material. Finally, trim away the excess fabric of the seams.

The final step for the skirt is to add the hem. The fabric will come from the leftover legs. Take one of the legs and cut it apart so that you are left with two strips of fabric. Sew the ends of the fabric together using a zigzag stitch so that you have a circle that fits comfortably around your waist. You want to make sure that it won’t fall down but that you can put it on and take it off easily.

Fold the circle in half so that the pretty sides of the fabric are facing out. Baste stitch the bottom (this makes attaching the waist to the skirt much easier)

To attach the waist to the skirt, pin the waist to the outside of the skirt so that the edges align. Sew with a zigzag stitch to finish. This may require some pulling because they may not be the same size. If there is too much of a difference (there shouldn’t be since they were both sized to your waist prior to sewing them) adjust the skirt seams to fit.

Now you have a new skirt perfect for summer! It even has pockets!!