Summer Of No Pants 2013 post #1

 My first skirt is a refashion that was really easy to do- in fact, the hardest part was deciding to cut the dress, and then actually cutting the dress!

The dress I started with was the twin of the check dress pictured below, I made them both in 2008, and the Watermelon Dress bodice was wearing thin...

 ...so, I cut the skirt off the bodice off the skirt (carefully cutting around the zipper, you know to save for another project), and I cut the pockets out, and sewed the new seams- tapering from the old to the new, so that I could keep the original hem. (oh, and I saved the ties too)

Next steps were to iron the top (smoothing the semi-permanent gathers), and fold down & under a generous casing for the elastic.

 

I then thought that this skirt would be better with a few belt-loops, so I cut a strip from the bodice, stitched & whacked it into 3 loops that I added after the elastic was in....one in the back and one on each side, and tacked the elastic down in 4 places- I should never have a problem with rolling and flipping elastic.

 

 

 I hand stitched the tie ends together (to make one long tie), and if you thread it through the belt-loops to the front, and then over the belt-loops to the back and tie it- you can almost hide the "elastic waist look"...it looks better with a shirt, but I was in a hurry, and skipped that!

 I must say, I am very happy to have an old friend back in my closet again!
(...but I may end up making it shorter...)