Frayed Hem Jean Skirt Easy No-sew Wardrobe Update

Thrift store skirt purchase

I'd love to be on the cusp of fashion-forward all the time, but frankly, I'm not so sure one could afford to be all the time.  I also think that trends change so quickly, it is sometimes near impossible to keep up with them, and finally, I don't need to tell you how much clothing and shoes cost. Of late I have been perusing the aisles at the GoodWill store in my area.

Shop Till You Drop

I often times will come away with a full bag of clothing, and there are times when I will come away with nothing at all. My own clothing journey has been interesting, I have lost quite a bit of weight and literally had only a few items that fit! When you go shopping in thrift or resale and consignment shops, you might even find items with the manufactures tag still attached! Most likely this item was bought and never worn, and like many of our own closets, we have this item hanging in there too! (Could be time to purge out your closet?)

This year a lot of jean skirts were showing up in ads and layouts. I realized that I no longer had a jean skirt; giving mine away, ahem, dare I say it, over five years ago! So this past August I ventured out to find one and lo and behold I found one!  But the fit needed an update. This skirt looked loved, worn in and ready to be the star in a wardrobe again, but it was styled for those times several years ago.

**I own a sewing machine and I used to love to sew years ago, but my machine has been in disrepair for quite a few years and now it has become a part of the basement's permanent fixtures and it collects dust so beautifully! Haha, so I do look for projects that need no sewing at all. (You know you're like me :) )



This skirt was very long on my petite frame, so the first thing I had to do was lop off several inches. This was easily done by using my cheater scissors. Have you ever seen these before?  It's kind of like a level tool for hanging pictures (ok so I might have done this before too) Anyway I placed the skirt inside out on the table after measuring how much I thought I'd need to cut off to bring the skirt back into fashion.





Then I shot the light straight (making sure that this was straight too) across the fabric and drew a simple white chalk line. Then with the scissors, I simply cut straight across.

Lined up ready for chalk line

Ready for a cut

cutting process

I took my handy dandy seam ripper to the now cut hem. I continued to go around and around the skirt fraying the edge. So simple. This skirt was frayed while I watched t.v. and held several conversations and I do believe I was done with it in an hour.

fraying nicely

The more that this skirt is washed and dried it will continue to "fray up", I am considering fraying up the pocket edges too as well.

made these cropped for the summer!

*I did this with a pair of pants this past summer as well. The fit was great but for some reason, the legs were incredibly long. I simply chopped off to the desired length and voila! You guessed custom-fit pants and frayed for that just right fashion crop!

I think that this idea can work with many fabrics just as long as the fray doesn't ruin the fabric like perhaps some types of polyester and silk. Any heavy weighted fabric such as denim and canvas are prime targets for my fraying methods.

Now, this skirt can go from summer and sandals to tights and booties for fall.  The fray is in currently and I embrace this trend.  Total cost for the skirt purchase was $3.00. I think it was worth it. Don't you? Check out my stylings below:

Summer styling gauze top, jean skirt, happy sun hat, and low sandals
Take Me Out To Dinner!

Fall styling: Long sleeve sweater, long sleeve cute tie cardi, burgundy-colored crossbody bag, and brown suede booties or leopard print pumps
Let's Go On A Fall Adventure!

Go shop your closet and find something to fray! What fashion trend are you working on?