Wardrobe refashion frenzy - converting skirts to tops.

When I was having my wardrobe moan recently (still not done that clear out I was going to do last week - must bump it up my to-do list), one of the things that prompted the whinge was the fact that I seem to have an inordinate number of skirts I don't wear taking up valuable wardrobe hanging space for all the other things I don't wear.


Most of them have come the car boot / charity shop route courtesy of my mum, but I am just not a skirty type of person.


So I pulled a couple out of the wardrobe the other day and decided that there was just too much source material there to waste and I simply had to use the fabric for something ultimately more wearable.


Converting skirts into tops - Part 1


Elasticated skirt to halter neck top.


(forgot the before photo AGAIN - must get that stamped in indelible ink on my hand)

LOL - what do think of my drawing - pretty good eh?

Anyway, remove the elastic waistband, and cut the arm hole shapes onthe front of the dress, I just used the skirts existing side hems as the starting point, then cut straight across the back. Hem the armholes.

To size the armholes I just held the skirt waistband to the base of my neck and in the mirror, marked with chalk where my arm holes needed to come down to on the side seams, then measured the distance and adjusted them so that they were identical depths down the seams both sides.

I hemmed the back to create a fold large enough to take a stretch of elastic.

Top tip:
- the easiest way to get a good idea of the amount of elastic you need is to consider it stretches to more than double its size, so run the elastic without stretching it across the area where you want it - here my back, then cut half the amount you have measured, the elastic will then stretch to the area you want to use it.

For the front halterneck, again I created a deep hem to take the ribbon that I had chosed to be the tie, threaded it through, and secured it with a couple of stitches to the middle of the front piece.