Wrap Skirt To Summer Dress

Uncomfortable skirt to fitted dress

Posted by Maladignia

About

I had a pretty wrap around skirt, black with blue dragons on it. However, I don't like skirts that confine leg space. I liked the fabric too much to just throw it away (or give it to a thrift store) so I decided to make a dress out of it.

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You Will Need (4 things)

  • 1 Wrap around Skirt or fabric of 140 x 100 cm
  • Sewing Equipment (machine, thread, scissors, pins etc.)
  • 30 cm or so Zipper
  • A Patient Friend Or Two

Steps (13 steps, 540 minutes)

  1. 1

    Get your skirt and lay it out.

    If you don't have a skirt you can also use a rectangular piece of fabric of about 140 by 100 centimeter.

  2. 2

    Cut of a strip that is about as high as your top part should be.
    For me this was about 29 cm but I focused on keeping the dragons in one piece.

    Wrap it around you and cut off the excess. (Shown in the picture as the grey part)

  3. 3

    Hem the straight cut edges of your top part and sew a zipper on.

    I have lots of zippers 'in store'. It's the stash of my boyfriend's grandmother.

  4. 4

    Part two of the zipper. Lining up quite nicely with the fabric, if I may say so myself. (I hate sewing zippers...)

    The bottom of the shirt does not line up properly but I just cut it off later.

  5. 5

    Put on the tube you just made, inside out. Of course it does nothing for your shape in this state..

    Here comes the tricky part. Lots of patience needed.

    Have your friend/mother/other helper pin the top to your shape.

    Fidget with the pins, sew, try on, adjust etc. until you have the perfect fit.

    Mine will even stay on without straps!

    Your top is done. At least, if you have used the hemmed part of the skirt on top. The bottom end will be attached to the skirt part so does not need hemming at this point.

  6. 6

    Now for the bottom part.

    Fold the left over piece of skirt in half, right sides together.

    Pin, sew.

    I had a rounded corner so I stopped sewing just above that.

  7. 7

    The skirt part of your dress: a tube.

  8. 8

    This is what it looks like together.
    This won't work of course... there's too much skirt for too little top. But that's on purpose. ;-)

  9. 9

    I wanted the front to be straight, so I lined out the back end: zipper on backseam of skirt. Then I found where the front of the top would attach to the skirt, pinned and sewed.

    On this picture the front of the top is attached to the skirt from side seam to side seam.
    All the excess skirt fabric is now on the back.

  10. 10

    Decide how you want to fold or gather your fabric.

    This is one way. A big fold in the back and two smaller ones to the sides.

  11. 11

    This is a different approach with lots of smaller pleats. This was the one I went with.

    Each fold is 3 cm wide. It's a Z form and the top bar of the z (and thus the bottom one; it's symmetrical) is 3 cm wide. So in total there's 9 cm of fabric in one pleat.

  12. 12

    This is what the pinned side looks like.

    Sew to the top and zigzag any fraying edges.

    Turn right side out and put on.

    If it does not stay up on its own you can use the cords of the skirt as shoulder straps. The straps you see in the picture are from my bra.

  13. 13

    Wear with pride.