Refashion: Turning a dress into a skirt

One way to save money on clothes while getting the thrill of completing a project is to take a good look at what you already have, but never wear. We all have those things in the backs of our closets that we feel guilty about buying and then ignoring, so let's do something about it.

In this case, I bought this jersey dress because I liked the fabric, but the bodice never really fit correctly. The V-neck always seemed too low, and I would be pulling at it all day. Also, I like to wear mostly neutrals with one punch of color, and this dress is all punch! Since I liked the fabric but hated the top, I thought I'd do an easy remodel.




Total cost: $1.24
Total time: About 2 hours. I did almost all the sewing by hand, but if you used a machine it would be faster.

First, I used small scissors to snip off the bodice at the seam line above the black waistband. Then, I found some elastic which was about the width I wanted the new waistband to be ($1.24 a yard at Jo-Ann Fabrics). I bought a yard of elastic, measured around my waist where I wanted the skirt to sit, and then cut the elastic about two inches smaller than that measurement, so that it would stretch to fit. I recommend trying this out by putting tick marks on the elastic with a pen, and then safety pinning it and seeing how it fits. Make sure to leave at least 1/2" extra for the seam allowance.

I then overlapped the raw edges of the elastic and zig-zag stitched them together using my sewing machine. You could do this by hand if you went over it several times to make sure it was secure. I like to give my skirts a nipped-in waist, so I actually sewed two pieces of elastic together and angled the seams so the top of the waist would be smaller than the bottom. If you use thin elastic this isn't necessary, and of course it depends on your build and preference.

All I had to do then was fold the black waistband fabric over the top of the elastic circle and sew it down on the inside of the skirt with the raw edge turned under. In my case, the waistband was very wide, so that made it really easy. If you were doing this to a dress without a waistband, you could just fold over the top of the skirt and sew it down on the inside so that you created a little channel for it to sit. You could also make a casing and then sew the casing to the skirt. I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible, though, so I went with the fold and sew method.

So here we are with the finished product. My dress form is really modest, so I put a black turtleneck on it to prevent scandalous exposure of felt decolletage. This is also an example of what I meant when I said I like to wear neutrals with a punch of color. It's toned down a bit and I can change out the tops I wear with it to get more use out of the skirt.