I've recently been organizing my sewing and craft supplies and have had to confront things I've acquired for projects and never did anything with, like this secondhand Spanish Leather Skirt.

Snagged it at a consignment store over a year ago for I think $16 and had the thought that I could make a cool clutch with the leather or something. The skirt actually fit me perfectly in the waist/hips though, so I had a hard time cutting it apart even though the length was TRAGIC on me.

Finally decided to just shorten it to a wearable length. I cut 5 1/4" off to make it hit just above my knee, serendipitously the exact point where the dark brown side panels ended. I drew in my cut line with chalk and used a rotary cutter and clear ruler to cut along the line. I put my small cutting mat inside the skirt so I was only cutting one layer at a time.

I tried it on and the length was perfect! But when I took it off, I didn't unzip the zip all the way and tried to shimmy out of the skirt and then busted the zip. UGH!!!! This thing sat in a bin for a year only waiting for me to fix it and then I immediately broke it. Good times!

Of course holes in leather are forever so I couldn't just sew a new zip in. I had to hand stitch a new one in using the existing holes from the original zipper. It wasn't the worst but was more time than I was planning on spending on this project.

Also had to hand stitch the sides, center front, and center back seams at the bottom — I cut through these seams when shortening and don't want my next wardrobe malfunction to be the skirt slowly unraveling up from the bottom while I try to walk in it. Again, handstitching using the existing holes in the leather.