How to Turn a Maxi Dress Into a Skirt
How to make a two piece set DIY: easy dress upcycle
We're finally starting to see signs of spring around here and I'm loving it! I even saw some daffodils blooming this morning, which really made me happy!
So with spring in the air, I'm bringing you a tutorial on how to turn a dress into a two piece set. It's a perfect DIY to bring your wardrobe from winter to spring! And it's super easy! This only took me about an hour… and I had a bit of a mishap (more on that later), so if you don't mess up like I did this won't take you long at all.
So I found this adorable dress at a thrift shop a couple weekends ago and fell in love with the bold color and the a-line shape.
Now I'm honestly more of a neutrals kind of girl, but as I said, I was feeling the spring vibes! And I thought the cut and color of this dress would make an adorable two piece set.
So if you have an old dress you want to make into a two piece set, read on for the full two piece set DIY tutorial below!
What you need:
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- a dress, A-line shape is best, but you could really use almost any type of stretchy dress
- sewing machine
- iron
- scissors
- ballpoint or stretch sewing pins
- ballpoint or stretch needle
- thread
- ruler
Steps:
- Separate bodice from skirt of dress
- Hem the bottom of the top
- Cut 4 inches off the top of the skirt
- Cut identical front and back waistband rectangles from the fabric you cut off
- Sew together front and back waistband at side seams
- Fold waistband in half and sew to the top of the skirt
- Iron everything and you're done!
Instructions:
For the top:
So first you'll need to detach the bodice from the skirt.
Then set aside the skirt for later. Next, I serged the lining and fashion fabric together along the bottom edge of the top. You could also sew them together with a zigzag stitch along the edge. If your bodice doesn't have a lining, you can just skip this step.
Next, fold under a small hem around the bottom of the shirt and sew it in place with a double needle or zigzag stitch.
That's all for the shirt! Now on to the skirt!
For the skirt:
So my first step for the skirt was to cut off the excess stitching and elastic from the top of the skirt that was left over when we detached the top.
Next, I cut four inches off the top of the skirt to make a waistband.
Now because the waistband we just cut off is curved, we can't just fold it and have a finished waistband. So we need to cut two identical rectangles out of the fabric we cut off. This will be our front and back waistband.
Next, use a zigzag stitch or serger to sew the two waistband pieces together at the side seams (short sides) with right sides together. Then fold the waistband in half with wrong sides together and iron it flat. You can also close the open bottom edge with a serger or zigzag stitch if you want.
Now we just need to attach the waistband to the skirt. This is where I had a bit of a mishap… I accidentally sewed the waistband onto the wrong side of the skirt so that the seam allowances were on the outside…oops… You can see in the photo below that I sewed the waistband to the INSIDE of the skirt, I should've sewed it to the outside.
So after I sewed it on I ended up just cutting my stitching off because seam ripping all that serging just sounded horrible…
So now we need to attach the waistband to the correct side of the skirt. Pin your waistband to the top edge of the skirt from the OUTSIDE of the skirt. I did this by pinning with four pins: at the side seams, the center front, and the center back.
Then sew the waistband to the skirt with a serger or zigzag stitch, stretching the waistband evenly between the pins to fit the skirt as you sew. Now just turn the waistband up and iron everything flat.
And that's all it takes to turn a dress into a matching two piece set, perfect for spring! I hope you've enjoyed this two piece set DIY and if you do try it out, I would love to see what you made! You can leave a photo in the comments or tag me on instagram at @adoptyourclothes.
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How to Turn a Maxi Dress Into a Skirt
Source: https://adoptyourclothes.com/how-to-make-a-two-piece-set-diy-easy-dress-upcycle/