And I do feel an urge to join the conversation. But I'm not sure how, so now I'm standing in a corner at a loud, raucous party whispering "hello."
Portishead "Toy Box"
This morning, I'm listening to a You Tube mix of Portishead and decided to post a tutorial on turning a maxi-dress into a skirt. If you want to do this project, you will need a dress, enough elastic to fit snug around your waist, and sewing implements. (I use a sewing machine, but you could sew this by hand.)
Here is the starting garment, a fairly voluminous maxi dress I bought at Seattle Goodwill Outlet (a.k.a. the pound store, as shown in Macklemore's Thrift Shop video here where nearly everything is sold by the pound, the prices are on the big board behind their heads.)
As a dress, this is awful on me: the top hits me wrong and hangs shapelessly off me. But there's green in the border that I think will work with a pair of lime green suede boots I recently acquired so I'm cutting off the lower third of it to make into a skirt.
First up, I put the dress on (while wearing the lime green boots) and belted it. Then I adjusted the skirt by pulling more fabric up over the top of the belt until I got a length that I liked. I stuck a safety pin parallel to the ground, right where the fabric came over the top of the belt.
I didn't care if my skirt was exactly that length so I didn't add any extra for the waistband. But you might care: add the width of the elastic you want to use if your fabric has nice cut edges Add double the width if your fabric will become unraveled or is otherwise nasty when cut.
smooth edge! Only my cutting is bumpy. This will not fray or unravel. |
frayed/ unraveled edge (and some cat hair.) |
nasty edge (bumpy, uneven or pokey fabrics all qualify) |
Next up, cut into it! I recommend cutting one layer at a time, because fabric is tricksy. You may think it is all smooth and flat but it can squirm around when you least expect it. I nip a small amount next to the safety pin, then folded the skirt over, matching lengths and nip again on the other side. My fabric has a bold pattern that was easy to cut across just be eyeballing, but you can use a felt pen and ruler to draw a line first.
Just a little nip here and there. |
I wrapped the elastic snugly around my waist and pin with safety pin where the ends overlap. Try not to stretch the elastic too much when measuring. The thicker the elastic, the less stretched it should be. Never make is so tight it won't fit over your hips. Check that now, and cut if satisfied.
Form the elastic into a loop by overlapping the ends about 1 inch (2.5 cm.) Make sure your loop doesn't have any twists in it and pin it together. Sew using a wide zigzag stitch down the length of the overlapped pieces and reversing or turning to sew back up again.
Pin skirt to band, wrong side of skirt facing elastic, matching edges. I divided my skirt in half, using the one side seam as starting point, folding it across and putting a pin in vertically at the fold on the other side. Then I did the same to the elastic. I matched the two pins up and pinned through both layers, from the elastic side. Then I pinned the elastic lapped seam to the skirt side seam. (My skirt only has one side seam, yours may have two. Just divide the elastic in half and match each pin to a side seam.)
This amount of pinning was enough for me. But you can repeat the process by sticking a vertical pin into the side seam/elastic seam side, then re-folding your elastic/skirt combo so the vertical pins line up. Then add new vertical pins to the folded edges (separately for skirt and for elastic) and then matching those pins up and pin through the layers horizontally from the elastic side. . You would have four matched up points instead of the two shown. Remove all the vertical pins before moving on.
Here is the skirt pinned to the elastic in two equidistant places. |
Starting to sew the elastic to skirt edge. Go slow and try not to sew over the pins. |
About half way through. Notice how the fabric is not evenly matched to the edge of the elastic. It's just not that important. . |
Finished, sort of. |
Examine your stitching: are there spaces where you just missed sewing the elastic and fabric together? You can sew over those areas now to attach them: remember to stretch the elastic!
Don't be concerned about some variation in edges matching, it really doesn't matter, unless you're selling this as Dior. |
This will be just like round one, but a little easier. Still stretch the elastic as you sew, but instead of trying to match up the edges as you go along, this time you just have to tug occasionally at the left side of the fabric in front of the the needle to keep the fabric folded smoothly over the elastic. It will tend to creep over to the right.
Stitching round two of the waistband. |