The Story of the Skirt

Once upon a time, there was made a pair of denim jeans. They were good jeans, strong and sturdy, and they belonged to a little girl. The little girl wore the jeans nearly every day. The jeans protected the little girl's knees from scrapes and scratches, kept her legs warm on chilly afternoons in the park, and were the perfect towel on which to wipe muddy hands. The jeans went everywhere with the little girl. They swung on swings, dug in the garden, rode bikes...yes the jeans and the little girl were fast friends.

But, as sometimes happens, the little girl began to grow. The jeans got a little tighter and a little shorter but still they played. The jeans began to fray at the cuff. The knees wore thinner and thinner until holes appeared and the little girl's knees stuck out each time she wore them. But she wore them still. Momma warned the little girl that the jeans were destined for the rag bin but the little girl objected. "I love these jeans Momma!" she said. Momma agreed to let her keep the jeans in her drawer, just for bit, hoping she would soon forget about them. But each time Momma tried to sneak them out, the little girl loudly objected and would yank her frayed, torn, highwater jeans from the rag pile and lay them loving back in her drawer.

What to do? The little girl still wanted to wear the jeans no matter how bad they looked. How could Momma let her keep them and wear them without cringing every time she pulled them out of the dresser? Momma was learning to sew. She checked out a book from the library meant for children but it proved very helpful. In the book was a project in which you took an old pair of jeans, much like the little girl's, and re-purposed them into a skirt. Brilliant! 

And so Momma began. She cut off the worn and torn legs and used her faithful seam ripper to rip apart the factory seams. Momma took her little girl to the fabric store and let her pick from the thousands of bolts which one would be perfect for her new skirt. After much deliberation, the little girl picked a cute pink cotton with silver hearts. Better yet, the little girl picked up clearance fabric and Momma got two yards for 65 cents! 

As soon as they got home, the little girl was eager to start. Momma gave her some scissors so she could practice cutting fabric while Momma pinned and sewed. It was slow going but Momma stayed the course. She even got to experiment with some of the fancier stitches on the hem of the skirt since the little girl said she missed the "strings" from the frayed cuffs and decided a frayed hem would be better than a straight one. 

A few pin pokes and a tangled bobbin later and Momma  had used those faithful old jeans to make a brand new skirt. The little girl slid into her old/new jeans and declared "Momma! I LOVE these jeans!"