Dress Recycled into Skirt and Top

We recently went through all our clothes and gave away to Goodwill a good portion of stuff we didn't need or wear any more. I kept a few things behind that I thought I might like to recycle into something else. I kept three dresses that I had really liked, but that no longer fit me since I had lost weight or that I just did like the style of anymore.

This first dress was one piece with a short 3 button placket in front. It was high waisted and really was always a little too big for me up top. After I lost weight the whole thing was just too big. I really liked the material though, so I decided to cut off the skirt right below the high waistline. I had to move a side zipper down a bit so that it ended at the waist. I also took in about 3 inches all the way up the side seam opposite the zippered side to make the waist fit in tighter. I finished off the waistline with a simple rolled seam and topstiched.

I wasn't planning on doing anything with the top part I had cut off, but then after showing some ladies from my church how to crochet around the edge of a blanket, I got the idea to crochet a band at the bottom of this piece. I should have altered it first before I crocheted it! I had to put in two double pointed darts in the back and lengthen the darts in the front after all the crocheting was done, and it would have been much easier to put in regular darts before hand. I also re-pressed the collar to make it more narrow. The wide collar was one of the reasons I did not like this dress anymore.


I wear the skirt alone much more often than I wear it with the new top, but I am glad that I have the new top as an option. The skirt is very airy and cool for the summer.

Here is the second dress when I wore it before I lost weight. You can only see the top part with the little jacket, but its the only picture I had. The dress under the jacket is sleeveless, is fully lined and has a long zipper up the back. The lining made it difficult to cut this dress's top part off. 

I hung it very straight on a hanger on the back of a door, put in a bunch of pins through both layers, and used a ruler to mark a cut line in chalk. Then I sewed through both layers over the pins along the cut line before cutting along the line. I cut right through the zipper too (make sure you unzip the zipper so the pull tab is below the place you are cutting, so you dont lose your pull tab.) I sewed a tack across both halves of the zipper at the very top to make a zipper stop, replacing the stop I had cut off. 

The resulting new skirt zips up the back and is fitted at the waist. To cinch in the new skirt at the waist, sew along the side seams to take in the fullness. I sewed up both side seams taking in a few inches at each side. Start about halfway down the side seam and sew about half an inch on top of the previous seam stitches, then sew up at an angle up toward the point you want end on at the waist. Don't catch the lining in the stitching when you are doing this.

Now I have a long skirt that is not as "old" looking in style as the full outfit was - a size 16 dress down to a size 6 skirt. I didn't keep the jacket as I am not such a good sewer that I could have altered it to fit from a size 16 down to a ten. I doubt I will do anything with the cut off top part.

This next dress-to-skirt alteration is the same kind of deal. A sleeveless lined dress that hit about mid-calf under a long sleeved jacket. I tossed the jacket and cut off the dress (see above procedure) right under the arms to make a floor length skirt. This time there was no zipper. I just ironed under a 1/4 inch bit of the top to the right side of the fabric, then folded it over with lining side out to make a casing for elastic. I topped stitched right close to both edges of the casing, then inserted 3/4 inch elastic into the casing and cinch the elastic to fit. I am wearing the first new skirt mentioned above in this picture.