I've had this jean skirt for a couple years and have hardly ever worn it, the first reason is the length was not flattering being right at the knee, as you can see here in this photo from quilt festival with my friend Jane LaFazio and one of my students, Nasreen. It makes my long legs look stumpy and it was just kind of boring.
So I cut off 3 inches and left a raw edge. I'm a 70's girl at heart, I always liked that raw edge on cut offs. Then I set to work bleaching the bottom edge.
This is how I did it:
I used bleach, unfortunately with denim there aren't really any other good options for removing the dye, and a bucket.
First I saturated the skirt in water so the bleach wouldn't make a sharp line when I first dipped it. I put about an inch of bleach in a bucket and dipped the skirt in.
Then I poured hot water down the skirt and into the bucket, so there would be more bleach in the bucket but it would be diluted. I slowly dipped the skirt in a little deeper so the diluted bleach went up higher on the skirt. I repeated dipping and pulling the skirt out of the bleach until I got the bottom edge very light and had a nice gradation.
I ran the skirt through a long wash wash cycle to get all the bleach out and put it in the drier on hot to get the bottom nice and frayed.
Now back to work prepping for all my classes at International Quilt Festival next week.
As if! I don't think your legs could ever look stumpy as you say but the color (and lack of) and cut off look is way fashionista!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Thanks Melly and Stacy, i'm so lucky to have friends like you in my life! :-)
ReplyDeleteSkirt is really cute. No matter what, I could never imagine using the word "Judy's legs" and "stumpy" in the same sentence. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteSo super cute! More about the art behind you, please!
ReplyDeleteYou're too funny Rachel, I can hear you saying that with your Arkansas accent ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Deborah, the piece behind me is painted canvas, that I started in a workshop at Create with Alisa Burke a few years ago. You can see a pic of the whole thing here http://judyperez.blogspot.com/2010/09/painting-canvas.html
As everyone has said, stumpy legs + Judy = ??? You look beautiful!!! I also love the little tiny peeks of the quilt behind you. Wishing you a sunny week.
ReplyDeletesuper cute. always love to see things reinvented.
ReplyDeleteadorable! great update and so darn cute!
ReplyDeletegreat job...i love the quilt in background.
ReplyDeletemuch improved! Show off those legs, girl :-)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how we quilter artsy types could care less about the clothes - we want to know about the quilt;-)
I love what you've done with the skirt! I'm a 70's girl too...only I don't have great legs like yours to show off. : )
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