I have this dress that I used to wear all the time, but it no longer fits in the top. I still love the skirt, so I decided I would turn this into a dress to skirt tutorial. This was a fairly easy and quick flip, it didn’t take too much skill. The hardest part was shortening the zipper and making sure the zipper looks ok. Luckily it’s on the back so no one will notice that it’s not perfect!
The first step was deciding where my waistline would be. There is this cute piping on the front that I wanted to keep, so I decided the top piping would be the top of the waistband. I measured the waistline part and it was 1″ so I marked the fabric 1.5″ above the waistline. I had to pick all the extra piping off the dress so it wouldn’t end up on the inside of my dress. After I removed the piping, I cut 1.5″ above the waistline.
Next, I got out the iron and ironed the fabric down so the waistband was 1″ high.
After this I worked on the zipper, I separated the zipper from the fabric so I could shorten it. (Here’s my blog post on shortening a zipper) I didn’t want to buy a new zipper since I wanted this to be a quick project. Then I shortened the zipper. I tucked the end of the zipper back underneath the folded fabric so it isn’t visible.
My last step was to sew the dress up. I started on one side of the zipper and went down the zippered bit, and across the waist. I sewed along the bottom of the waistband where the fabric is gathered. This made the stitching mostly invisible.
All done. This is my finished dress to skirt!
