{"id":112,"date":"2012-07-29T20:45:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T00:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailysew.com\/?p=112"},"modified":"2016-08-03T11:56:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T15:56:21","slug":"how-a-dress-became-a-skirt-and-a-purse-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/how-a-dress-became-a-skirt-and-a-purse-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Dress Became a Skirt and a Purse. Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Dress pieced back together for the photo. In my excitement I forgot to take the photo before cutting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently my mom was cleaning out her closet and thought I might like a dress she had made in 1982. Maybe I could put it in a consignment store she suggested. It was a simple, straight sheath dress made in a silvery grey raw silk with a boat neck and an interesting detail of a wide, horizontal tuck about 8 inches above the hem.<\/p>\n

I remembered this dress and always liked it but I wasn\u2019t going to wear it. However I fell in love with the grey silk so I wasn\u2019t going to consign it either. It was an obvious decision; I\u2019ll cut off the top half and make a skirt.<\/p>\n

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A dress turns into a skirt<\/h3>\n
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The bottom half of the dress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Measure on your body how long you want the finished skirt to be. The dress is already hemmed so just measure up from the hem to the length you want. Mark with a pin or a fabric pencil. But wait don\u2019t cut yet. Add inches for the elastic casing. I like 5\/8 or \u00be inch wide elastic for a waist seam so I add double the width of my elastic plus \u00bc inch for ease, plus \u00bc inch for finishing the raw edge. If using \u00be inch wide elastic you would add 2 inches (3\/4 x 2, \u00bc ease, \u00bc to finish raw edge) Mark your cutting line and cut.<\/p>\n

Turn the now disconnected bottom half of your dress inside out. Start by finishing the newly cut raw edge by folding over \u00bc\u201d(toward the inside of the skirt when it will be on your body) or zigzag stitch on the edge. Whether you fold or stitch the raw edge, iron it on the correct heat setting for the fabric.<\/p>\n

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measure down from the top where the top edge is going to lie. This will form the casing. Please note: the raw edge in this photo is still raw and not finished<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To make the casing, fold over the finished, top edge of the skirt (same direction as you did the raw edge). You will fold it over the width of your elastic plus 1\/8 inch. I find it easier to measure and mark on the skirt where the top is going to lie on the skirt. Then I just fold the top down so it touches my marked line. If\u00a0 Measured and marked the elastic width plus ease my marks would be the fold line.<\/p>\n

Check your measurements all the way around so your casing is the same width all the way around the top of the skirt, pinning the lower edge in place as you go. Note: Pins usually work best if they are place perpendicular to the seam or to the edge of a pattern. \u00a0Iron the fold.<\/p>\n

Leave the pins in or add more if needed to prevent fabric from creeping as you sew the casing down in place. Start at the back of the skirt and sew close to the lower edge of your casing. Stop sewing about 3\u201d before you reach your starting point. You want that 3\u201d opening in the back to thread the elastic through.<\/p>\n

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Raw edge is finished. Casing is folded and pinned into place. Ready to sew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I insert two pins side by side as a visual reminder of where to start and stop sewing for the casing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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What size elastic? Cut a length of elastic an inch or two longer than the measurement around your body where you want the skirt to sit. (skirts don\u2019t sit, I know) so if the place on my body where I want the skirt to be is 30\u201d then I\u2019ll cut my elastic to 32\u201d but if all I have is 31\u201d of elastic, I\u2019ll make it work. (I\u2019ve also been known to attach two shorter pieces of elastic together to make one long enough piece).<\/p>\n

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Elastic has been threaded through the casing all the way around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you have a bodkin, now is the time to use it, well, if your elastic fits through it that is. If not, place a large safety pin in one end of the elastic (this gives you a \u201chandle\u201d to feel through the casing while working it through). Feed your safety pin, head first, or bodkin, into one opening of the casing. Keep working it through the casing because the object is to come out the other end. Be extra careful to keep elastic flat and not let it twist upon itself. If your casing is too wide it may twist and if it\u2019s too small you can\u2019t get the elastic through so measure carefully to leave enough room (consider your fabric\u2019s thickness) but not too much room.<\/p>\n

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Overlap the edgeds and sew perpendicular to the elastic’s edges a few times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once you have both ends of your elastic, overlap the ends of the elastic and pin together with that safety pin. Try on. Adjust elastic if needed. Too loose and your skirt could slip off too tight is always uncomfortable and not pretty so take an extra five minutes and try it on to get the fit just right.<\/p>\n

Sew the elastic together by laying one end over the other and stitching back and forth a few times with a regular straight stitch. Be sure you are using a universal needle so as not to cut the elastic.<\/p>\n

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My “tag” because in the winter I dress in the dark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stitch the opening of the casing closed. I slipped in a scarp of fabric (folded in half and zigzagged around the edges) so I can easily tell what is the back of the skirt since this dress had no center back seam or anything else to distinguish it apart from the front.<\/p>\n

Now you are done. Really, you’re done. That was easy wasn\u2019t it? \u00a0For me, it was far easier than going shopping.<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out part 2: Patch Pockets Tutorial<\/a> to place some super useful pockets onto your new skirt.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently my mom was cleaning out her closet and thought I might like a dress she had made in 1982. Maybe I could put it in a consignment store she suggested. It was a simple, straight sheath dress made in a silvery grey raw silk with a boat neck and an interesting detail of a […] Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,272],"tags":[55,33,54,38],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories-to-sew","category-sewing-clothes","tag-purse","tag-quick-easy","tag-skirt","tag-up-cycling"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/the-steps.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EZxn-1O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailysew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}