Refashioning: Making Clothing More Functional - Fixing a Weird Trend

Sometimes, you find an item at the thrift store and you go, "Now that trend must've lasted about five minutes!" That's how I felt about this dress. From the front it's super Minnie Mouse cute. . .

. . .but from the back, it makes you go, "Crap!" and put it back on the rack, because. . .you can't wear a bra with it!

Fortunately, it's a simple fix.

The first step was to cut the twisted part down the center. To do this, I worked the fabric so that I could fold the bottom of the twist in half like this:

Then, I made a small cut in the fold.

Then, I worked the top part of the twist and folded it in half like this:

And I made a small cut in that fold. (I'm pointing at it).

Then, I worked the fabric so that I was looking at the untwisted band, flat, with my two cuts.

And I cut down the middle.

This cut allowed the twist to lie flat.

I sewed up the middle. Still a problem, because of that hole. If you don't mind the hole, you are done here, but I didn't want my bra to show.

I found a piece of fabric that was slightly larger than the hole.

I pinned it to the inside of the dress around the hole.

And I stitched it up. 

You may like the "before" look better than my fix. It's seriously a preference thing. Anyways, I hope it gives you an idea!

The End!

Refashioning: NO SEW! Making Clothing More Functional - Dress into Skirt

Here is a "no sew" version of my last blog post about turning hard-to-wear clothing into more functional pieces. 

(Before I begin, I need to mention that you can do the same method as the aforementioned post if you peel off one side of iron-on adhesive tape and--after cutting the bodice off--iron the tape onto the inside of the top of your waist hem. Then, remove rest of the backing off the tape, fold the hem down once, and then iron the fold. The only problem will be around the zipper if your dress has one, you may have to take the old sewing needle and thread to that part to tack it down.)

Here is a second method and it requires no tool skills except cutting with scissors! The only thing is that it can only be done on dresses with elastic waist bands and no zippers.

For this type of dress, the waist band is not only already cinched in with elastic, but also, the band has been finished on both sides, so all we need to do to turn it into a skirt is to cut the bodice away from the skirt. Cut as closely to the waist band as you can with out cutting into the waist band.

 

Hopefully this picture is clearer.

A close up of the waist band. You can barely tell that anything was cut because the waist band is already finished!

Finished skirt! It took less than five minutes!

The End!

Refashioning: Making Clothing More Functional - Sleeveless Dresses into Skirts

Here is a little series I am doing in the "Refashioning" vein, but specifically geared towards changing "okay" clothing into more functional pieces (vs. hideous pieces into less hideous). I hope these entries give you some ideas!

Today's post is about how to turn sleeveless dresses into skirts. It really is as easy as cutting off the bodice and hemming the waist, but for those visual learners, scroll through the pictures!

A note before cutting, you will notice I laid the dress down with the front of the dress facing the floor. Now look at the picture below. I am lifting up the back bottom hem. I pulled it down below the front about half an inch or so. This is to allow for "butt lift." This is for those babies, who like me,..."got back."

So...really important. If your dress has a zipper and you want to keep it, make sure to zip it down just past the waist. Otherwise you will chop it off when you start cutting!

To hem the waist band, just fold it down twice about 1/4-1/2inch and pin it. Then sew.

Zip the zipper up to the top before you start stitching, this helps you keep both sides even.

That's it! Here's my finished skirt with one of my favorite T-shirts!

Here's another sleeveless dress I turned into a skirt.

Don't forget the zipper!!

I probably would never have worn these dresses as dresses because they were too high maintenance, but as skirts, they will get much more mileage!

The End!!