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Oh, how I love turning clothes I no longer wear into something new. I made a DIY linen wrap skirt by upcycling old pants!
It’s adjustable around the waist in two ways, so I can always get it to fit. This is one of my favorite pieces in my closet right now.
McCall’s M7960 Skirt Pattern
I’ve had McCall’s M7960 sewing pattern for a while. It’s a level one in their Learn to Sew collection, so it’s good for advanced beginners.
It’s a basic wrap skirt with knee-length or midi-length variations. You can sew a patch pocket and/or side seam pocket.
Other variations have gathers and tie ends. Think of all the different skirts you can make from one basic pattern!
Materials
Here’s the fabric and notions I used for this project. The pants I upcycled were already in my closet!
Fabric: I bought this rust-colored linen-rayon blend fabric from Joann during a big sale. It’s a bottom-weightfabric that’s good for making pants and shorts too.
Linen tends to wrinkle and may lose shape throughout the day. But this fabric is wonderful for making a wrap skirt because it doesn’t wrinkle so much.
For the lining, I used a lightweight cotton/polyester blend woven fabric from Joann. They only had white, and I thought about dyeing it, but I didn’t.
Other suggested skirt fabrics are cotton blends, gingham, and lightweight denim.
Notions: I used a hook-and-eye, lightweight fusible interfacing, and 1-inch knit elastic for the waistband.
Sewing the Wrap Skirt
Making the skirt itself was pretty straightforward. The most time-consuming part was the prepping.
Well, I upcycled a pair of old linen pants for my fabric. I made them myself and had only worn them a few times.
They had a baggy fit to start with. Plus, linen pants sag throughout the day, so they just got bigger and bigger!
So the first thing I had to do was deconstruct the pants. This can be tedious in itself, and I saved as much fabric as possible by using a seam ripper along the seams.
Then I sewed pieces together to create yardage, and then I was able to cut the pattern pieces.
After doing all the prep, it was smooth sailing from there.
But then I decided to add a lining. I sewed the skirt, keeping the front facings open. This was to tuck the lining into them.
It was a bit complicated, but I think the picture tells the story better.
When I finished the skirt, it was a little big around the waist. I had sized up at the time because I was between sizes.
I shouldn’t have done this, though. Sizing down would have fit just fine.
Luckily, a wrap skirt is easy to adjust because there’s overlap to play with. I still wanted the side seam pockets to line up on the sides.
So, the best way for me to fix this was to take it in on the back. The waistband easily become a casing for an elastic back.
So, I opened up the back waistband and ripped out the interfacing. Then I slipped elastic in the back.
Voila! It ended up with a flat front elastic back. That was a great hack!
Self-Drafted Knit Top
I self-drafted the top pattern, which goes with many outfits in my closet. You can also find it in my other blog posts.
It’s only three pieces—one in the front, and two in the back.
The rayon fabric gives it a nice drape. I knotted it in the back and tucked it under to wear with the skirt.
Notes
The skirt didn’t need a lining, as you can’t see through it. However, I added one because it helps keep the shape.
Plus, it’s more comfortable. Sometimes linen can have that scratchy feel, so I like to line my skirts to avoid this.
Also, the white may show at times when I walk, but it’s not so bad. Next time, I’ll probably dye it to match better.
Overall, I like how my skirt turned out, and even wore it while exploring Hawaii!
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