Refashion No. 1!

Well, the hour had come! I have finally made my first large girls refashion!

A simple one, but still! This one was pending since the last summer, and it was well overdue! As the summer had finally reappeared, I found it to be just the right time to get my little sister a skirt I have promised to fix for her!

So, after a family Sunday get-together I have decided to make myself useful and finally do it! Since I have forgotten to take the original picture of the dress before I have snipped it, I will try to make it up by posting a really fun picture of my sis dancing with her husband at their wedding, wearing the exact dress that was subject to this refashion.  

Going back to the fact – why would one want to snip a dress that seems to look perfectly fine – but here is the thing:

1. she wasn’t happy that the dress was actually not a maxi dress, as it showed her ankles
2. secondly, this dress, similarly to all other big girl’s dresses had a high waist making a pear-shaped girl looking like a blob, which all of us want to avoid
3. and thirdly, the comfort of the silk muslin the dress was made of was simply to wasteful to be worn on rare occasions, especially as it was everything but flattering.

So, the refashioning decision was made! The dress would become a maxi skirt, one that actually covers ankles and allows for some flexibility in wearing during the summer.

For that purpose, I have chopped of the top part of the dress (as shown below) and cut a curve at the front part of the dress (also shown on the sketch I made). The reason why we do the curve on the front of the skirt is to assure a better fit and avoid fabric bulging and gathering in the front. This is a tip most of the girls with any belly bulges can use when sewing and refashioning, and the easiest way to measure the curve is to put on the skirt and decide how deep the curve should be to have the best possible fit. To make a curve, mark the middle-depth point for it on your belly, take it off and cut the curve starting from the side seams towards the marked middle point.

 

As the second component for this dress, I have chosen to use a cut-off middle part of a cotton turtle neck (the neck part I use as a head band for bad hair days), while the rest I have used as an addition for the special pillows’ filling.

Firstly, as the fabric was really sensitive, I have sewn the skirt along the waist, so that I could sew the muslin together with the cotton knit from the repurposed shirt. After the first step, I have stretched and pinned the back of the skirt with the back of the shirt cut-off, machine sewing it together. I have repeated the same for the front, paying attention to pin the cotton shirt trim along the curve I have previously cut-in at the front of the skirt. Lastly, I have folded the shirt cut-off (now the waist part of the skirt) and sewn it with the inner seam, achieving the look shown on the picture below:

 

And for the show-off part of this refashion, here are pictures of a blouse tucked-in and worn over.

 

I hope you will like this refashion! Please leave your comments below!