How to convert a shirt to a skirt | My Perpetual Project

A few years ago, hubby was tossing his polo work shirts because they were well-worn. Some of the collars were fraying and the fabric around the button holes was getting holes. Not one to easily toss fabric, I set them aside for some future project yet unknown.

While on Pinterest (yes, I say this a lot), I ran across a post about making skirts from shirts….so, I thought I’d give it a try with his discarded polo shirts. I made one for myself and was surprised at how easy and fast it was since the hem of the shirt becomes the hem of the skirt, not to mention, super comfy!

The process to do this quick change from a man’s shirt to a woman’s skirt is very easy. After the first transformation, I no longer needed to look at the instructions. I went on to make a few more for myself. My daughter in law, Anna, wears a lot of skirts so when her birthday rolled around, I decided to make a couple for her, I have since made her several more.

My son is a self-taught seamster(?), tailor may be a better term….anyway, when he was in high school, he started making clothes for himself, creating his own patterns. My favorite item he made at the time was a pair of terry cloth overalls to wear at his job as a dishwasher. He took two of our large beach towels and converted them into the overalls. Very ingenious, I must say! He has created many amazing items since – back packs, corduroy vest, skirt, pullover, etc. Anyway….last year, he wanted to make a skirt for Anna and asked for the instructions for the polo skirt so I recreated them for him….they follow with some pictures of the process:

Lay the polo shirt flat
Decide how long you want your skirt to be
Measure from the hem of the shirt toward the arm hole until you have reached the desired amount of inches for your skirt length
Cut straight across the shirt from left to right – you now have your skirt
To create the waistband, turn the shirt over and cut two rectangular strips from the upper back of the shirt
Sew the two strips together along one of the long edges with right sides together
Sew together the short side to make a circle. If adding elastic, leave an opening wide enough to thread the elastic once the waistband has been attached to the skirt
Depending on your waist size, you may not need to add any elastic
With wrong sides together, baste the two pieces along the raw edges
Pin waistband to top of skirt and stitch
At this point, you are finished unless you would like to add some fun touches
On this skirt, I had removed the pocket from the shirt and sewed it to the skirt. I cut two thin strips of fabric and sewed them along the seam between the skirt and waistband, stretching them as I sewed so they would curl then attached buttons where the strips met.