Pants to Skirt in an hour!

I needed a skirt for my upcoming trip to Ethiopia and all mine were too black, too short, too long, too bulky, too twisty, too twirly....you get the picture.  I own nothing that would work.

I evaluated my options. I could buy one locally at the wonderful but very pricey outdoor store, order something online and waste hours looking for it, pay for quick shipping and then discover upon arrival that it doesn't fit me anyway ....which is pretty typical or I could just make do.

I thought about my daughter (hesowedshesewed) who made all her daughters clothes from thrifted clothes and didn't buy anything new for a year.  I wondered if I could  refashion a clothing item in a big girl size? So I thought about that for a while as I ate a million cookies.  (Hey, I run a little now...so I am doing a scientific self- test to see if I really have bumped up the old metabolism)


When all the cookies were gone I went to work. I had found these green (yeah, green)  Chico Zynergy pants last year at a thrift store in Chicago. I didn't know size 3 meant "large enough to use as a tent for family camping." But I know that now. At the thrift store is the larger the size the better value?

With nothing to lose so I got out my scissors. In one hour I had a skirt! And it will do just fine :) It's a little longer than I'm used to but appropriate for this trip....and when I return, I know where the scissors are!

After this photo I ironed the skirt and it actually looks a little better than this picture.... but I was trying to blog from my phone and  this is what I got but you get the idea.