DIY old dress to a new skirt

“They” say that if you haven’t worn an article of clothing in a year then you should get rid of it (exception being formal wear).  I’m pretty good about that except for a few items.  I have a few dresses that while I never wear any more I can’t seem to get rid of them.  Either the fabric is really pretty and I keep thinking I will do something else with it or it has sentimental value.  While I enjoy purging my closet every now and then I keep feeling like I should keep a few items for the long haul.  I have several beautiful pieces that were once my mom’s or grandmother’s and I LOVE them.  If I get rid of everything now I won’t have any fashion treasures to pass down to my future granddaughters.

I’ve had this dress for a looooooong time.  I’m not that sentimental about it as I bought it at Express in the (ahem) ’90’s but the fabric is so pretty I couldn’t bring myself to put it in the Goodwill bag.  I knew it had another life in it but just not sure what.

I really like this blog Chic Envelopements.  This gal is crazy good at repurposing old items or stuff she finds at the thrift store.  I got the idea from her to turn my dress into a skirt.  I should have practiced on a Goodwill dress but like so many of my other projects, I jumped into the deep end without a life jacket.  It turned out sort of okay but of course the material I was working with was about the most slippery and difficult material in the world to use and it was two layers.  Double whammy.

I wasn’t super thrilled at my attempt.  If you look too closely you can see all sorts of mistakes.  But I wore it to church last week and actually got a lot of compliments.  Either they really liked the skirt or they were trying to keep a Christian attitude about what a horrible job I did and were trying to make me feel better.  Either way I think I’ll keep it.

If you want to try to turn an old dress into a new skirt a) use a simple cotton dress b) check out Beth at Chic Envelopements for all the instructions and lots of other great repurposing ideas.  (She did not ask me to say that or to even write this post.  I just really like her ideas)