Do you have any unflattering long dresses that sit in the back of your closet, unused? I have had this dress for years and I don’t believe I’ve ever actually worn it, just not liking how it looked on me. I kept it, thinking it would look better with a pregnant belly, but sadly, it didn’t. I’ve been trying to minimize, so it was either going to Goodwill or being refashioned. I thought a maxi skirt would be a great option for the dress since it’s so long. So, here’s how to refashion a dress into a maxi skirt!
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How To Refashion a Dress Into a Maxi Skirt
Lay your dress out.
Cut off the sleeves and right under the neckline. Save the top part if you want a tie waistband.
Determine how long you want your waistband to be and cut. It will be folded over. Mine had to be somewhat shorter to make the length of the skirt hit the floor, so keep that in mind.
(only do this part if it is too wide for your waist) Sorry, it’s hard to see, but turn inside out and sew up both sides at an angle towards where the waistband will be. I used a zig-zag stitch on all these stitches. Cut off the excess fabric.
Mark how wide you want the waistband to be.
Sew where you marked and cut off the excess fabric.
If yours isn’t a knit fabric and you’re going to make a tie waistband, you will need to sew two buttonholes on one layer of the middle bottom half.
Fold in half with wrong sides together.
Tuck inside top of the skirt with raw edges and seams aligned and pin. The skirt should still be inside out and if you used buttonholes, they should be up against the right side of the skirt.
Sew a zig-zag stitch all the way around.
If you have enough scraps, you can make a tie waistband.
I cut three strips a little over 1 inch wide each. You will possibly need more/less, depending on your size.
Sew ends right side together with a straight stitch. Attach all pieces this way until you have a long strip.
Fold entire length right sides together and straight stitch very close to the edge. Safety pin one edge of an end and push in the open end. Feed it all the way through until it’s right side out. Unpin and tuck in ends and topstitch to close. It should look like the image below.
If you didn’t sew buttonholes, cut two small slits in front of the waistband, careful not to cut the inside. Pin one end of the tie and feed all the way through to the other hole.
Like this!
All done!
It ended up being a little long on me, so I might need to make it shorter. But I love it! Cute huh? Much better than that dress!