Adventures in Upcycling

I had a day off this week due to Abigail being sick (poor baby! but she made a fast recovery) so I headed up to the local thrift store with the three youngest siblings.

I've been interested in learning to upcycle clothes for awhile, and the prices at our local thrift store have dropped a bunch since the last time I was there, so I picked up this dress to play with.

While cute, it doesn't fit anyone in my family as a dress (and it's also pretty short, so not gonna work in this house, lol). However, after looking at how it was put together, I was pretty sure I could turn in into an adorable skirt.

The top had a stain on it, so the first thing to do was cut it off. Using a rotary cutter and plastic ruler, I cut it straight across, just below the bottom of the sleeve.

Looking good!

I kept the top part... I later cut off the stained part and attached a pink cotton print and made a top. :) But more on that later.

The original dress had a dropped waist and a belt, so step #2 was to remove the belt loops.

I discovered I don't really like taking out stitches that someone else made any more than I like taking out my own stitches... "destitching" is so boring. But eventually I got them all off!

I turned over the top and hemmed it nicely. Initially I was going to do a casing and elastic waistband, but I decided to try something new and do an exposed-elastic waistband instead.

Using Lizzie as a guide, I measured out a piece of elastic around her waist and zig-zagg stitched it to the hemmed skirt with elastic thread.

I kept stretching it out as I went and it turned out PERFECTLY!

Of course, I had to have Liz model it for me.

Isn't that one classy skirt? I really really wish it were my size, lol. But if you have a little girl size 12/14, it's up in my Etsy shop - check it out!

Btw, if this tickles your fancy and you'd like to see more upcycling, well, here's the blog for you: New Dress A Day. Pret-ty amazing! :)