Time for another Refashion…

Straight to it tonight – it’s getting late!

Here’s the original skirt:

(I told you in an earlier post it was a ‘JAG’ brand skirt but I mixed it up with another skirt I have ready for refashioning… this one is actually a size 8 ‘OJAY’ branded skirt.

Now I’m going to try something a little different for me with this tutorial and that is it’s predominately pictures with some explanatory text contained within them. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and read the text a little easier… let me know what you think of this type of tute… is it too generalised and lacking detail? does it take to long to load?

So to begin:

Cut open skirt:

Shorten skirt to length required for dress:

My skirt had pleats on the lower portion… I made sure when I cut it open that my closing seam when I join it back up would be in the hidden crease of a pleat… but as for those pleats:

Now take your contrasting fabric and get cutting…

After cutting all your triangles you are ready to join all those skirt pleats back up…

When you get to your last triangle you will also want to join your skirt/dress back up along the opening so that it forms a tube like shape (not an open flat anymore).

I then went ahead and overlocked the hemline to neaten it up and get it ready for hemming a little later… Check this out now… no more boring pleats!

Now onto the what is now the dress bodice…. My skirt had a zipper and buttons at the centre back which I wanted to keep but because of the pleats I did not want to cut two side seams… the result of which is a seam running down the centre front. Not something I would normally do or like but the skirt had pleats to hide it on the bottom portion and luckily pin tuck pleats on the upper portion.

Nonetheless, I wanted to jazz it up a little so…..

Using the longest stitch setting on your machine sew a straight line down the centre (DON’T lock stitch the start or end)

Pull the bobbin thread once you have sewn the length of the fabric to make your ruffles.

Then attach the ruffle to the centre front of the dress…

Super easy spaghetti straps for the shoulder ties… because the dress is now pretty ‘full on’ I wanted really simple shoulder detail but I’m not sure if I’m really happy with it – but more on that later….

Whilst at the iron you might as well press the hem line of your dress:

So, now you’re ready to finish the hem and sew on your spaghetti straps…

Well, as I mentioned earlier it’s a little late here (2AM late in fact – lucky for some I’m somewhat of an insomniac…) so I can’t show you a picture of Big Little Miss M wearing the dress. This is a shame because no matter how I photographed it hanging or laid out nothing gave it justice . Sure hope it looks good on her….

Here’s the best of a bad bunch of finished photo’s:

Front ruffles…

 

I LOVE how the skirt turned out… its fuller than a full circle and I just know it’s destined to become a twirly favourite… As I said earlier though I’m not sure about the spaghetti straps. I wanted simple because the rest of the dress is quite eye catching but somehow the straps just look a little unbalanced with the rest of the dress… I will see how it looks on otherwise I might change them yet!

So, I hope you liked this refashion but do check back in a day or so to see this dress in action so to speak…

Although this tutorial is specific to this skirt you could replicate the idea with any pleated skirt of any size – even if you had a skirt that fits but wanted to give it more twirl factor… Most my refashions are applicable not only to the piece I am reworking but can be applied to any similar type clothing item with just a few modifications. If you ever have any questions or need a little guidance with something you are refashioning from one of my tutes, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line… I’d love to know I’m inspiring you out there to find some unloved clothing and turn it into something special and unique…. oh and if your not already following along, please feel free to follow my blog – the more the merrier

UPDATE: Here is the dress in action – rated a 10 for twirl factor by Big Little Miss M…. Went berry picking today and HAD to wear it (you can see/read more of that in  new post later today…)

Cheers

The Spangler