Restyle | Skirt to Dress

When I first laid eyes on this skirt,

I knew I was going to turn it into a dress.

The colors just popped,

the print was lovely and it was silk.
And it was a size 10... way to big for me..
 

Ok, here we go...

But first wanted to gush that my "tutorial" has been linked by another blogger ♥ ♥ ♥
 

And now back to the tutorial :)

I started out by taking the skirt apart...

Starting with the lining....

Just in case I screwed up...

I drew out how I wanted my neck opening to look.

for the back I wanted it to be 1" deep and 8" across

for the front I wanted it to be 2" deep and 8" across

pinned the lining at the shoulders

traced an arm opening at the front and back of the right side

then folded it in half and traced the arm openings for the other side

after cutting out the arm holes I pinned it back at the shoulders

for some reason the arm holes turned out too big,

so I pinned it up more at the shoulders

trimmed the shoulders and pinned the bodice at the sides

leaving about 1/2" past the pins, I cut down about 5"

pinned it again on my double to check for fit

so far so good

using my rotary cutter I cut the sides off

almost done cutting

once I cut all the pieces, this is what I had

Still with me?

Let's keep going :)

folding the silk fabric in half and the lining in half

I placed the lining on top of the silk fabric

cut out the silk fabric about 1" bigger all the way around

except for the shoulders

pinned everything together and it looked good

so I sewed everything in place

but the bodice under the arms flared out 

so I had to fix that.
Also, when I tried to put the dress on me..
I couldn't fit my head through the neck opening
so I had to cut it out a bit more..

oops

some how the hem on the right side in the front turned out to be longer

so I had to un-hem it

(something I didn't want to do because I hate hemming)

laying the dress down flat, I cut off whatever was extra

 But now it's too short.. way too short for me to wear anywhere in public!

The lining turned out to be way too snug
so I decided to use it to lengthen the dress.
From the back part of the lining I cut out a strip of fabric
as long and as wide as I could.
Then I cut it in half.
After I folded and  ironed the two pieces.
I stitched them to the edge..
lining up the two raw edges.

after that, I ironed the seam so that it faces down, towards the hem

then to keep it all neat and together I sewed a line of stitches close to the seam

To finish of the edges of the neck and arm openings,
I folded under about 1/8" and then folded again and handed stitched it all.
Then I stitched it with the sewing machine.

I so badly wanted this dress to be a no waste refashion

but it just didn't work the way I wanted it too.

And to not waste as much as possible

Out of some of the scraps I made a flower pin..

I can pin it anywhere I want to.. change it up with my mood :)

at the shoulder

or at the belt

Oh! and this is how I made the belt...
I also didn't want to waste the top part of the skirt..
not sure what it's called, but it's like a belt and has buttons and button holes...
The waistband! Thanks charityshopchic :)

Anyway.. I just tucked in the open raw edge and stitched it through.

Moved the buttons closer and voila! a belt!

And finally this is what my dress looks like...

I can either wear it with the belt...

Or without...

All in all it would have probably been faster and easier

(and less of a headache) had I used a pattern...

But it still turned out lovely, if I do say so myself :)

Sorry if this post seems rushed,
but I was getting really tired by the end of this refashion..
If you have any questions you can always ask :)