Clothing Repurposing: Black Dress - Thick, Patterned (good find) (complete redo)

See how I took this size 16 dress and turned it into a size 4 skirt

Step 1.

Try on the dress. measure where you would like the skirt to start and end.

cut the entire bodice off. Leaving the lining alone (pick the lining off before cutting)

do not cut the zipper off. pick the zipper off the dress to where you will cut.

Left with something looking like this.

Step 2.

Measure how far you would like to go in on the waist

I wanted more of a pencil skirt feel.

Try to follow the natural curve of your body concerning the placement of the skirt

sew it in. Cut off the excess. Make it a clean stitch with a zig zag stitch or a serger.

Step 3.

The yoke is usually the hardest part for most. I wanted to use the pink lining found around the neck and the arms

Unpick the lining and make your yoke by placing 2 pieces of material (rectangles the length of just over half your skirt and with width or about 4 inches) face together, sew one side and flip it open and put the pink lining alongside the raw edge and do a basting stitch to keep it in place.

Step 4.

line the yoke up with the skirts waist line faces together with lining in the middle. Sew all the way around the waist using a zipper foot so get as close to the lining as possible. Until you reach the zipper sew as close the zipper as you can.

Step 5.

the zipper is also a difficult area. Make sure you have a zipper foot. Fold the yoke up and fold the raw edge against the zipper. Sew as close to the zipper as you can. Cut the zipper just above where you sewed and tuck the raw end of the sipper behind the yoke. Do a few stitches to hold it down.

Step 6.

The bow is just because I have a bunch of left over material so it's just for fun

Take two rectangle pieces of material (about 5 inches by 3 inches). Put them face to face the widths with the lining in between.