pants to skirts

I know I mentioned a few times what great hand-me-downs we get for the kiddos.  We have such sweet friends who supply us with clothes and we always love when it's our turn to hand down.  There is a family who we have befriended and they have both a girl and boy, so they make great playmates.  They are Pentecostal and the girls do not wear pants.  Bee mostly has worn dresses and skirts herself, on her own accord, so it hasn't been a big deal.   During our last clothes drop off/picnic, the mom told me how some of the moms will take a pair of pants and make it into a skirt.  I googled this and found several ways to do it.  I worked up a few pairs for her that will make perfect spring skirts.

The legs get opened by pulling out the stitches. I also pulled stitches up the front and back a bit to make them come together more easily.  There is the option of adding a panel in the newly formed triangle or bringing the to side in together in the front and again in the back. 

Bee will. not. wear. these camo shorts.  will. not.  She says they look like boy pants.  I thought I'd try this method on these guys too.  Maybe they won't look boyish in skirt form. 

I tried both ways on the first two skirts.  I used the left over material from the length of these pants to make a ruffle.   I used every scrap of fabric to get it together.   Bee insisted it would fit again and it almost did. 

These two were easier and faster and just got a panel sewn in.

For Bee's, I just brought the leg openings together and ironed and sewed in place.  It's cute.  If I had one, I'd wear it.  She won't wear it.

I'm pretty excited to send these along to my friend now.  It's opened up a whole new world of re-purposing clothes.  I'm planning a set for myself next. 

Here are two of the blogs I had seen on pinterest that I had looked at for ideas.  Here's the ruffly skirt at The Frugal Girl.  Here's the panel skirt at Katie Blog.