Dress of the day 254. Going grunge. Upcycling. Convert a girl's embroidered, embellished denim trousers into a woman's skirt.

 


Angela going grunge. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

The magic of this outfit is the converted too small jeans. The top is the easy bit. If you have a small jacket, just leave it undone. And/or enlarge the sleeve holes. Or slit it down the sides and wear it as a tabard. To hold it in place, my favourite easy adjustment, add two ribbons. All you do is sew on two small pieces of ribbon. Buy ribbons cheaply from a cut price store. Or borrow the rope or fabric handles from paper tote bags which you and other people throw out.

The Top
Alice
Fashion Shop
VIP
 The label says NTS 400.

Pockets
It has two small pockets. They do not do up securely. Large enough for a paper hanky or key.

Buttons
The pockets are both decorated with one button which says JEANS, in capital letters, rivetted on.

The metal buttons on the pockets are the same size as the five buttons down the front, which just about go through the cut open buttonholes. Another button is on each epaulette. I had not noticed the epaulettes until I typed this up.
I just discovered another button on the waist tab each side. Total ten buttons. 

To Re-use Rivetted Buttons
Not easy to remove and re-use those buttons. You would have to cut off a small postage stamp size square of fabric and sew that fabric onto another garment. Or cut off the entire pocket tab, the entire pocket, the entire shoulder epaulettes, and the entire waist tab. And maybe the entire placket with the five front buttons - and maybe the buttonholes to match.

Jacket Size
The jacket does up on me. During the past year I have slimmed down to 28.3 kilos.

I had two tops and two pairs of jeans and two blue jeans short skirts. I looked at them to match up the colours.

The apron front skirt is made from child size jeans.  

How To Convert Jeans To A Skirt 
First cut the inner legs. I slit the jeans up the inner seams of the legs, using a pair of tough scissors.

I looked at the seam. The seams are not wide enough to justify the effort of slitting the seam and re-sewing. Instead of undoing the stitching, save one side of the seam which is already secured with machine stitching. Cut the other side, preferably under any overlap.

 You might use a serrated pair of pinking shears. But on tough denims I did not want to challenge my pinking shears. 

The new skirt does not meet at the back. I have a choice. 
a) Wear it over a long skirt or slip like an apron.
Add two ties of ribbon, one either side at the waist. 

b) Conceal the back with a long jacket.
I tried a long black jacket to co-ordinate with a long black half slip.

c) I could have added my second pair of child's jeans at the back. 

Accessories
White silk sleeved Patra top
I tried several colours of tops. I had a pink top, like a thick t-shirt which was too thick and hot. I had a coral pink Patra silk ribbed vest with lace neck and with short sleeves.  I had several black vests which went with the black jacket. For the basic outfit without the heaviness and bulk and formality of the black jacket, the simple plain white went best.

Useful Websites
Alice
Fashion shop
VIP

Bossini

Bossini kids

Jens jackets
Jeans fabric jackets
Ribbons 

Spotlight Ribbon
Spotlight stores for sewing and crafts and homeware are also in Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Daiso Ribbon



Useful search words

Appliqué dungarees for girl

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR
Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.
Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 
bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.
Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.
 
Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 


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