A lot of the clothes I used to buy before I started thrifting and refashioning are impulse buys or things that I bought because I had an event to go to and “nothing to wear” which often resulted in mad dashes to the mall to quickly go in, grab something and get out.
You know what I’m talking about. There are people who love to shop and then there’s me. I love to shop when I’m just browsing. I hate to shop when I really need to find something. When I’m not looking or it’s not in the budget, everything looks great and I want to buy it all up. When I’m under pressure and looking for something specific, of course I can never find it.
That’s the story of this dress. I needed something for a First Communion and bought this dress a few years ago. It was alright. Nothing special. Here’s a picture of me actually wearing it at the event. Yes, I was brunette here. Another fashion mistake (of a different kind). Every time I colour my hair brunette I vow it will be the last time. That definitely was the last time. Just like this dress really needed to be a skirt, I really need to be blonde.
The so-so dress. Nothing particularly special, though it does have a very colourful print.
I thought chopping the length would do the trick, so that’s what I did.
Dress with some of the length chopped and hemmed.
I still didn’t like the way it looked but look at that print and those colours. I had to do SOMETHING with it.
Off came the bodice.
Stitching the new waist.
Since this dress had a zipper on one side, I had to cut the top of the zipper off as it was too long for the skirt. I folded the zipper over and stitched it place underneath the new waistband. You have to fold the top of the zipper over, otherwise when you zip your new skirt up the zipper will just come right off!
Another option to folding the zipper over is to stitch the top teeth a few times by hand so that the zipper has some sort of stop to keep it from coming off completely.
That solid green part of the waist was then handstitched in a few places just to secure it further.
Now-much better. There are so many colours to pull from for top options. I need to do some serious shopping for summer tops.
Dress Becomes a Skirt!
I like it so much better now. What do you think of my green shoes? I wish I had taken this picture from a different angle so you could see the heel. They’re Nine West from last summer.
This is the last of the dress to skirt refashions. I’m tackling some more challenging dresses (that will stay dresses but be completely transformed) next. Can’t wait to work on them and post the results here.
BEFORE
AFTER
Restyle4Life 
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