Skirting the Issue

Wanna know how I turned a too big sheath dress,

into a punchy pencil skirt?

Good, because I’m going to show you. Note: real seamstresses, avert your eyes!

Normally, I wouldn’t attempt to create any kind of skirt not involving elastic, but because the dress was made from a stretchy cotton blend and had a zipper up the back, I figured I could try for something more fitted. Plus, I found the dress for about a buck at Goodwill, so if the skirt turned out to be a train wreck, I wouldn’t have to cry about it!

Step 1: Lower the zipper, turn the dress inside out, and ransack your closet for a skirt to use as a pattern.

Step 2: Lay the skirt over the dress. Cut the top off of the dress where you want the waist of the skirt to be, leaving an extra inch or so for a seam allowance. Measure about ¼ of an inch out from the edge of your pattern skirt and pin.

Step 3. Sew up the sides. Try the skirt on. If it fits, go ahead and trim off some of the excess fabric from the side seams.

Step 4. Fold the waist of the skirt over twice, pin, and sew.

Notice, I didn’t do anything special to the zipper. I probably should have done something special, but I didn’t know what. I just cut off the top of the zipper flush with the waist of the skirt. The folded waist band seems to be keeping the zipper from zipping right off the skirt, so I’m OK with it.

Step 5. If you have a serger, go ahead and serge those side seams to keep them from unraveling. I don’t have one, so I just did a zig zag stitch right next to the raggedy edge of the fabric.

I LOVE this fabric so much, and the skirt is very girly and fun to wear. Check back Friday if you want to see what it looks like on an actual person!

<3
Hattie