Make-It Monday: Dress to Skirt Re-make

I know it's been a while. I've been sick, had papers due, then midterms . . . Well, needless to say, I haven't had time to post lately. So I wanted to share this darling skirt I made from a dress.

(*Sorry about the direction of some of the pictures. I forgot to turn them, but my computer is being retarded and won't read my camera card, so I'm not taking the obscene amount of time it would take to go back and fix them.)

The fabric was just perfect for my middle child. And her birthday was coming up. But the dress was not up to our modest standards, and besides, it was way too big. But I saw potential in the fabric.

I wanted to keep the darling trim and bow, so I planned to cut it off above that. I started by cutting out the boning.

Then I removed the zipper. I did another dress to skirt where I left the zipper in and just cut it down, but I decided to try this one without it completely.

Then I measured 3 or 3 1/2 inches (don't remember which) above the seam, and cut it off. Measure every few inches all the way around and mark, then cut connecting the dots. Then I serged around the raw edge to finish it and hold the lining and fabric together.

Then I folded it down inside, and stitched "in the ditch" to hide the seam. I didn't want to sew over the cute piping and have it show.

I didn't know how big I needed it to be, and thought I might need to put the zipper back in so she could get it on and off, but I might need to add elastic in the waist to keep it on her. So for now, I just finished it off by sewing the back seam where the zipper was closed (sorry no pic).

Turns out, she can pull it on, but it's not too loose. So, for now, she can wear it as is. And in a year or so, if we need, I'll cut the zipper off shorter (I kept it for this reason) and put it back in. I love how it turned out! And it took less than an hour from start to finish.