Turn Pleated Shorts Into A Gathered Skirt Tutorial (w/pics)

It's been a while since "Jumper Skirt Out Of A T-Shirt" that I've posted a tutorial.
This is not a "made-from-scratch" tutorial, but it's something pattern-makers and seamstresses may appreciate.

Since it is Spring, (if you view my favorites on SeptemberCarolan.etsy.com) you know what is IN this season: Floral patterns!

Enter, this lovely garment. It has one of my favorite floral patterns (Cabbage Roses) that is, for me, very hard to find. So this garment is all I have and what do I notice...they are Pleated Shorts! Yuck!

When I think of a garment bottom made of a Cabbage Roses textile, it should be as feminine as possible. Like a skirt!
So I'm given the choice of letting that specific design of pleated shorts (that I did not like) be made out of a lovely textile.
On top of that, the shorts are too big, so there are no photos of me wearing the them; they are at least one and half sizes bigger than me.
The only pics I could find is a shop photo, in which it looks like a skirt.



Here is a close up of the pleats in the shorts:



I grab the shorts, grab my notepad and write down the fate of this fashion mistake:
Turn Pleated Shorts Into Gathered Skirt:
Keep the zipper
Remove waistband
Remove pleats
Adjust waistband
Remove crotch
Gather skirt
Replace skirt onto waistband

These are essentially the steps, documented with photos and instructions.



You will need:
Shorts
*This tutorial is for a pair of low crotch shorts that are made of 4 panels.
How do you know if they are? There is a seam-line at the center-front, center-back, left, and right sides of the garment.
Of course not all shorts are made like this, but I mainly want to show you how to remove the crotch seams to create a skirt and to work with pleats when you want gathers instead.*
Scissors
Sewing kit
Sewing machine
Seam ripper
Straight pins


Time:
2-3 hours


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Keep the Zipper
While we are adjusting the waistband and skirt, we are not going to remove the zipper or remove the waistband where the zipper is, this will stay intact.
Why? The factory stitches are fine as they are, it would be a more complicated process to remove and replace the zipper.


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Removing Waistband
Remove top-stitching and the stitches that attach the skirt to the waistband, do this carefully. Leave about an inch intact at both sides of the zipper.
It took me a while to undo the stitches with my seam ripper, but the work was worth it.
Pictured here is the inside of the waistband and the fusible interfacing attached to the fabric.
You can see the seam at the waistband, the band is made of 2 strips: 1 front and 1 inside. (to be technical, there are 6 strips if you count 3 inside strips and 3 outside strips; that are separated with seams)



Here is the waistband partially removed (remember we are keeping the zipper attached)



Here is a closer look at the waistband and its seams between the strips.



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Remove Pleats
Now that the waistband is partially removed we can remove the pleats. Luckily for me, they didn't cut off the excess fabric where the pleat was taken in. It generally looks like a pin-tuck. Remove these carefully with a seam ripper.

There are about 10 pleats in this skirt. Each pleat s about one inch. This gives me more fabric to gather up in the waistband later.
You can see the extra fabric in comparison to the waistband, this came out to about 51" of shorts to the 34" of waistband. You can see clearly how baggy the shorts were designed at.



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Adjust The Waistband
As I mentioned earlier, the waistband was over a size too big for me. It was at 34", to measure where I wanted to skirt to sit (low on my hips) I measured, and I even double measured by wearing a skirt that fit me low on my hips. This came out to 30"
Remove the stitching at the waistband, refer to the photo of the strips and seams of the waistband. This was an arduous task, since so many seams make up the waistband, just work slowly and carefully.
Here is the waistband after the seam was undone.

I only took apart one side of the waistband, since it took me so long to get one seam undone. Plus, I can still make the seam at the waistband even with the untouched seam. This took some planning, I only took in the 4" at the front portion of the waistband and not 2" in at both portions.
Since there were so many seams to sew back together, I hand-stitched all 3 seams that connected to each other with a partial back-stitch, since this is the strongest hand-stitch for permanent seams.
You can machine stitch the waistband back up again with the deducted inches, if you have trouble remembering the construction of the waistband, do what I did and take a few close snapshots of the waistband seams. It helps.



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Remove Crotch
The shorts are made with 4 panels, this makes it easier to turn into a skirt, since there has to be a seam to take in the crotch of the shorts, (if your shorts do not have a middle-front seam like these shorts do, you can easily make one when you are ready to take in the crotch portion of the shorts)
Remove the stitching at the crotch part of the shorts, where the front and back meet only.
After you have removed the stitches, you will need to find the grain-line, this will help you take in the skirt evenly. You want to match up the grain-line with both panels.
Find where the crotch is, then pin together up until the grainline matches both sides. Here is what it should look like.

Here is the back





You will have to undo the stitches at the hemline as well, so you can connect them later after you take in the crotch.
This is the crotch after I took it in. I also hand-stitched this with a partial back-stitch.
Of course, you can machine sew this together.
Notice that I took the hem out a few inches and stitched through it, so I can re-hem the skirt later.



You can see the stitching clearly, I used a partial back-stitch that is very visible from the back; it looks thick because I used a 4 strand thread for strength.



After stitching in the crotch, cut off the excess fabric and over-lock the raw edge with a sewing machine.
Leave a seam allowance that matches the uncut seams, mine was about 1/4".
Fold the bottom hem to match the rest of the untouched skirt hem. This will take some time and possibly some more trimming, but don't worry it will not show on the outside of the skirt.
Here is what it should look like when you trimmed off the crotch seam and hemmed the new skirt bottom.



Do this to the other crotch seam.


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Gather Skirt
Now onto the gathering of the skirt.
My skirt had some extra fabric from being too big and from letting out the pleats.
Gathering can be done one of many ways, either using extra strength thread in the bobbin and sewing a long, straight stitch all the way around the top of the skirt and gather by way of pulling the extra strength thread until you evenly gather and pin to waistband.
OR
You can do what I did and hand gathered. This is not a process I recommend to everyone, especially if you are not a patient person :)


For either way: you need to pin the skirt seams to match the waistband seams, since there are 4 panels and 3 seams (including the zipper) pin each one accordingly. With the center front seam, just measure the front waistband from left seam to right, and divide in half; that is your center front of waistband to pin the center skirt seam.
Here is what it should look like when you pin all the gathers.



Here is the entire skirt gathered and pinned:



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Replace Skirt Onto Waistband
Now that the skirt is pinned and ready to be sewn, sew it the outer waistband flap (right sides together)



When you are finished, place inner flap of waistband down.
Before you pin, make sure the raw edges of the skirt and waistband that you just sewn are pointing upwards (like in the previous photo), so the skirt gathers are not popping up on the outside of the skirt.
Here is what it should look like when you are done pinning the inner flap down on the skirt:



You will sew the top stitching on the outside of the skirt, this is to ensure that the stitching will be along the fold of the waistband. Here is what the top stitching will look like on the outside of the waistband:



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After you have finished top-stitching, you are done with the shorts to skirt transformation.


I always like being able to alter a garment to my size, or change the style entirely. Especially if the garment is styled in a way that is too dated or wrong for the textile. :)


So you just went from this:



To this!



You now have a cute gathered skirt custom altered to your specifications and ready for Spring! ^_^