Upcycled Skirt and Pants

My mother-in-law brought over some garage sale finds and a few things that she lost the receipt and could not return.  I kept looking at this shirt and thought it would make a nice skirt for my khaki loving 5 year old.  I thought with a quick hem and some elastic it would be realized in no time.  

 I started by folding the bottom of the shirt up to just below the armpits.

 I used the bottom end as a guide to cut.

 I folded over the cut edge just over an inch so after it was sewn it would fit the elastic piece.

 I then sewed the waist hem, leaving a small opening for the elastic.  Using a large safety pin I threaded the elastic (cut to be slightly smaller than her waist). After threaded, I sewed both ends of the elastic together and then completed the last inch of the waist hem.  In about 5 minutes, it went from shirt to skirt.

 She liked it so much she insisted on wearing it the rest of the day. Comfy, cute and will last a few years.

With the leftover material, I attempted to make pants too.  They did not turn out quite as well as the skirt, but with either a longer shirt or just as cruddy pants they will do the trick.

First, I cut off the collar.

 Then, I folded the shirt in half to find the middle and cut along the fold.

I trimmed the excess to make the sleeve it a pant leg. After cutting one, I used it as a template to cut the other so they would be even. 

I pinned the right sides together and stitched along the edges.

 The waist of these could be done with elastic the same way as the skirt above, but I was out of elastic and decided to do these drawstring.  I ripped the stitches from part of the seam I just made (just over an inch from the edge of the fabric) which will be the opening for the drawstring.  I top stitched the outside of the seem so that it would stay.   

 Next, I turned down the waist about an inch and stitched around the whole waist.

 I used a large safety pin to thread the drawstring through the waist.

 THe finished pants.
You can see there is a puff at the shoulder of the shirt.  

But with a shirt over them, you cannot even tell.  For maybe a fifteen minute project, not too bad. 

One adult large women's shirt + less than 30 minutes = a new skirt and a new pair of pants.