I’m really excited to share with you a project I made over 7 months ago, a jeans skirt using the Linden Skirt Pattern by Sew A Little Seam.  This unisex pattern has with options for shorts or a skirt.  The Womens’ Linden Skirt is great, too – you can find my tester version here.

I used a beautiful 8.6 oz. stretch denim from Imagine Gnats to create this skirt.  If you remember, last summer I shared denim distressing tips on the Imagine Gnats blog.  I had so much fun writing that post and I made a very fun denim skirt.  Before my Burda skirt pattern came in the mail, I whipped up this fun little Linden Skirt.

Sizing

I wanted something my daughter could grow into, so I made size 3T.  In hindsight, I should have graded between a 2 and 3T.  My daughter’s measurements fell under a 2T AND the stretch in the denim meant that the skirt was even bigger! I took the side seams in a bit more, but it was big on her for a while.

Obviously, it’s a good size for her now and she wears it a lot.  This little lady has a nice little Buddha belly going on. I’m wondering if I should make the skirt lower rise in the front.  Let me know what your thoughts are!

The Details

I made a flat front skirt with elastic back (I used button elastic) and faux front pockets.  I did some fun pocket stitching on the back pockets!

The distressing was done using sandpaper and a dog nail grinder.  It was a lot more fun than distressing something for myself, a lot less nerve wracking! When it’s something for a kid, even if it doesn’t turn out, they will probably love it.  What’s more, THEY are cute, so regardless of what their clothes look like, they make us smile!

Adjustable Waistband

To truly make this a skirt my daughter can grow into, I added button elastic.  This is simply elastic with a smaller width than my waistband (here I’ve used 5/8″ elastic).

To make an adjustable waistband, construct two buttonholes on the left and right of the inner side waistband. Fasten buttons near the buttonholes.  Then, attach the waistband and pull the elastic through the buttonholes.  To make sure the elastic wouldn’t slip through the buttonholes, fold the edges over and topstitch.

I forgot to take into account that when the elastic is stretched, the holes on the elastic GROW. This meant that the elastic popped off the buttons and I had to replace them with bigger buttons!

Need a little push to sew some denim? Check out my post ‘7 Tips for Sewing Jeans That Everyone Should Know‘.  It’s been such a fun adventure sewing denim in 2018! I hope you will give it a try.