Can't find a jean skirt that fits! Please help!!

I put this under body type, and I'm not sure if that's the right category, I don't know this site. It might be better under shopping, but the issue is with body type.

I've wanted to rock the jean skirt style for years. I like the shorter ones, not the knee length or lower, and the ones with buttons and such are especially cute. I don't think I could rock the kind that flares out a lot. I like the ones that are kind of like loose pencil skirts made out of jean. Colored jean skirts are also cute.

Here's my dilemma: I can't find one that fits. I'm very petite. Like, really skinny. My waist is 23 inches. However, my hips go out to 38 inches (butt contributes). These skirts aren't made for girls with that big of a difference. If I get it to fit the wide part of my hips, then it's super baggy on my waist and will straight up fall down. And if I get it to fit my waist, it's super tight on my hips/butt.

I've googled every phrase I can think of to try to find the style of jean skirt I want, but made for girls with my body type. I can't find a single thing. My hope is that someone on here will know of a skirt that would fit me.

Thank you so much!!!

7 years ago

Ginger

Veteran

Allison, as the possessor of a similar waist/hip difference, I know exactly what you are talking about. Some women make peace with having the skirt just ride lower on their hips and not trying to fit the waist. I have a hard time with that approach myself, but it works for a lot of people.

Otherwise, your two options are (1) tailoring and (2) custom work. Custom work will be extremely tricky. First because of finding someone who's good at it, but also because of the detailing that goes into good denim. Washes, distressing, lots of irreplaceable special hardware, etc. All of that is extremely hard to duplicate without the machinery.

For tailoring, you want to find a skirt that fits your hips as well as possible, and has enough height to come up to your waist. The tailor will need to open up seams, add darts, move belt loops, and cut down the waistband to take in the waist. It might be worth finding several different skirts (returnable) and bringing them to the tailor for an opinion; the construction method makes some much easier/better to take in than others.

(If at all possible, avoid a skirt with rivets. They have to be destroyed in order to take out the seam they're in, and it's impossible to find replacements that match.)

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Sounds like Ginger has you sorted. Good luck.

Jenava

If I were you, I'd fall in love with style that better suited for your lovely frame! I have j. crew skirt that high-wasted a-line and it's awesome!

J.Crew

Belted A-line skirt in denim

View Info

Top Pick

Greyscale

Ginger's got the right answers.

A low-rise skirt that sits lower on your hips might be easier to alter, and has more of a rock-n-roll look. An easier, less perfect alteration is to put darts in the back of the waistband.

I just thought of another option that might or might not work for you: make a skirt out of a pair of jeans that fit perfectly. If you know of any jeans brands that accommodate your proportions (maybe a bigger market than skirts? I know Old Navy and Levi's have curvy lines), you can get a tailor to open up the inner seams on the legs and flatten the whole thing into a skirt. You'd need a pair of sturdy jeans with wide legs to make sure there's enough fabric. But the advantage is that you'd keep all the jeans details that are so hard to reproduce from scratch.

Here's a tutorial to show what I mean (they are using a little kid's skirt as the example, but the writeup was clearer than the other ones I found):
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2.....skirt.html

Allison

Member

Thank you all for your help I appreciate it greatly

Style Fan

I like Greyscale's idea. I have had several denim skirts made out of jeans. I loved them. They are definitely RATE (Rough around the edges). I might actually have one made out of a pair of jeans that ripped in the legs beyond repair.

Emily K

Levi's 800 series is the style with the greatest waist-to-hip ratio.

Jinxy

Active Member

My approach is to get one in a kiddy size if there is one, and have it altered. I find that's the best approach. Of course skirts built for kids do not really fit adult women but that seems to require less hacking and chopping than getting the adult ones.

Obviously it costs a fortune though.

Marina

I'm only 5ft 2" and also on the extra curvy side (14 to 15" waist-hips difference, depending on my current weight). Whenever I need to shop for new clothes I feel like all pants are clown pants and most skirts are in fact hula hoops in disguise. But about your problem, I agree 100% with Ginger. I will only add a few things that usually help me when it comes to shopping and tailoring.

- Basic sewing skills can solve small gaps, but huge gaps demand a lot more skill, as Ginger explained. My advise for all curvy girls is: unless you can sew like a pro, find a good and experienced seamstress and never let her go

- Each piece of clothing has a base structure and messing with a piece of clothing structure to make it fit is usually a bad business. Changing clothes structure to fit measurements is a lot more difficult and a lot more work than doing it with the right measurements from the start and very few seamstress are able to do structural alterations without some defective side effect. If you know an able seamstress, buying fabrics and having a clothe made on demand will give you a better clothe for a lower price.

- to know if your needed alterations are going to mess with a clothe structure, pinch the waist gap to make waistband and belly area fit as better as possible. If pinching the waistband makes your clothe front looks lopsided, belly is still visible "baggy", side pockets look mismatched or like dumbo ears, fitting looks weird in some other part of your clothe or there are too many wrinkles in crotch area, chances are you will have to mess its structure.

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