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Re-purposing: Women’s Dress to Skirt

May 10, 2010 - By Ashley Johnston 29 Comments

I am on a re-purposing kick again.

Hopefully you are finding some inspiration in your closets too.

I bought this dress at Ross a while ago and thought I liked it…..but once I got it home, the top part bugged me, and just never fit right.

So instead of returning the steal-of-a-deal (you know how those good deals are at Ross…) I decided the value was worth turning it into a skirt.

Do you have a dress of your own that just isn’t doing it for you?

But do you love the fabric and hate to see it go?

Cut that thing up…..

You can either make a casing at the top and slide some elastic through, like shown here.

Or you can smock/shirr it like shown in the Lily Skirt pattern found here
or the Maddy Dress pattern found here.

With the patterns, there are step-by-step directions with plenty of troubleshooting tips to help you master this fun technique.

Before cutting, determine the length of skirt you’d like. Then add enough fabric at the top to make your casing if you’re going to go the elastic waistband route………or enough to make the smocking at the top. Then just use the original hem of the dress as the hem for your skirt.

Quick and easy.