Scout's Honor Skirt

I had this pair of brown pants, you see, and like most pants, they were a tad too short for my long legs. I could have sworn I had a before picture of the pants in question. However, it seems to have eluded me now. Let's just pretend they were these pants.

Only a little shorter. And not quite so wide-legged. But other than that, they were exactly the same pants.

Given that I turned the above-pictured pants into shorts, I had to do something else with these. I mean, brown shorts are rather versatile, but I don't want people thinking I only have one pair of shorts and just recycle them everyday. Gross.

So I decided that these not-pictured pants would become a skirt instead. A cute pleated skirt, like a schoolgirl skirt, but not the slutty kind. I began by cutting off the top portion just below the zipper and pockets, being careful not to snip the pocket lining along the way.

Then  I cut open the legs at one side seam...

...then the other side seam...

And finally, I cut each of these four pieces in two and evened up the edges, giving me eight same-sized rectangles.

I sewed these rectangles to one another so they formed a tube, and I pressed my seams.

I hemmed around one edge, which will be the bottom of my skirt eventually.

I used pins to mark where my pleats would be, about 1.5 inches to each side of each seam.

Then I folded from pin to pin and sewed roughly 1/8 of an inch from the fold on the right side of the fabric.

Next I made another fold halfway between each seam and each of my previous folds. And I sewed down those lines on the wrong side of the fabric. I chose to top-stitch my pleats like this since this brown denim-y fabric isn't really going to hold its shape, especially after washing.

So after repeating this process for each of the eight sections, now it's time to reattach the skirt to the waistband. With the waistband inside-out and the skirt right-side-out, I stuck the skirt into the waistband, lined up my eight pleats where I wanted them, and pinned it in place.

After a quick trip under the needle, I flipped the waistband up and top-stitched along the horizontal seam for a nice, clean, finished look.

And now I'm ready to go sell some Samoas and Tagalongs (but never Thin Mints! Ew!).

Nah, as long as I leave my merit badge sash at home, I don't think I'll be mistaken for a girl scout anytime soon.

Speaking of not being a girl scout anymore, I've got another artsy project to show you. This one's been in the back of my mind for at least five or ten years, but I finally took the plunge a couple weeks ago.

Although the design is my own, I can't take credit for the execution obviously. That honor goes to Adrian at Death or Glory in Dallas, Texas. He did an amazing job! And now that they're all healed, I get to show you! Don't you love them!?!