Easy Dress to Skirt Tutorial

Do you remember this skirt from a couple posts ago?

Well this skirt was originally a dress! It was very cute, but pretty short. I got it on a huge after-Christmas clearance sale in 2010 for about $12. I knew it was a little short so I couldn't wear it to church, but with tights, I could wear it to other semi-formal/Sunday best things. I wore it for two New Year's parties and other things like that. The moment I found out I was going to BYU, I planned to turn this into a skirt. (So it would be long enough, and I would get a lot more use from it.) It was a very simple process, and it would be good for beginners. (Just make sure you are comfortable with a zig-zag stitch.) This wourks best with stretchy dresses with no zipper.

Materials:

One dress. (Stretchy with no zipper works the best)

1 yd (about, it depends on your waist size) 2" thick black elastic

Black thread (Or color of elasic if you use a different color)

Sewing Machine

Step 1: Pin along the dress where you want the waist band of the skirt to be. (If you are trying for length, I would pin right under the armpit, otherwise, a few inches above the waist line of the dress works.)

Best "before" pic of the dress that I have.

Close up to show where I pinned.

Step 2: Cut right above the pins marked.

Step 3: Try on the bottom part of the dress to see where it fits best and where it hits the desired length.

Step 4: Measure the elastic around where the top of the skirt hits your waist. (Make sure the elastic  is snug, but not too tight). Pin the elastic and sew it into a circle using a zig-zag stitch.

Step 5: Pin the skirt to the elastic witht the front of the skirt touching the back of the elastic. (If the skirt is bigger than the elastic, or vice versa, it's ok, just make sure the sides and middle line up.)

Step 6: Sew the skirt onto the elastic using a zig-zag stitch. If the elastic is smaller than the skirt, pull on it so it stretches as you sew, and vice versa for if the skirt is smaller.  Cut any extra fabric off.

Step 7: Try on the skirt to make sure it looks fine and adjust anything funky or wrong/ (I had to unpick my entire skirt because it was so horrible. And I dont unpick ANYTHING. This is a very important step, because what would happen if you skipped this and tried to wear it one night and saw that it looked horrible?? That would suck worse than unpicking and fixing it now.)

Step 8: Wear your new skirt proudly and shock people when you say you made it! (I think that even though you didn't make it from scratch, it's still ok to say you made it.)

So how was my first tutorial? I hope you can understand it! Feel free to let me know anything that would make this better! And I would LOVE to see what you create if you use this tutorial! Thanks! :)