How to Make a Bardot Dress Out of a Long Skirt in 7 Simple Steps

Tools and materials:

• Long skirt
• Elastic
• Safety pin
• Pins
• Sewing machine

This is the pattern that I used to make my dress. You can copy and adjust it depending on your measurements to ensure a perfect fit.

1. Cut the dress

Start by cutting the skirt in two to create the body of the dress and the ruffle section. Simply divide your long skirt as shown above and then cut along the line.

2. Cut the sleeves

For the sleeves, mark 5cm (1.96 inches) across and 12cm (4.72 inches) down. Then, join the points with a curved line and cut the shape out. Once done, clean up the raw edges using a zigzag stitch or overlock the seam.

3. Hem the ruffle

Take the piece of fabric from the skirt that you'll use for the ruffle, fold the top over, and hem it all the way around. Be sure to leave a small open gap in it to be able to insert the elastic.

4. Insert the elastic

Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic and pull the elastic all the way around the ruffle. Then, sew the elastic together and sew the gap closed.

5. Line up the ruffle and the dress

Fold the ruffle in half and place pins on both sides to mark where the midpoint is. Do the same to the dress as well. Then, align the midpoints of the two pieces and pin the ruffle to the skirt.

6. Sew together

The next step is to sew the ruffle to the dress. As shown in the picture, you only want to sew the mid-section, as the outer two sides will be where your arms will go.

7. Hem the dress

Finish off by hemming the bottom of the dress. Fold it twice all around, pin it, and sew.

How to make a Bardot dress tutorial

Here we have our super easy and super gorgeous Bardot mini dress. You would never believe that this started as a long skirt - what a transformation!

You have the choice to either wear it off of both shoulders or have it one shoulder on, one shoulder off, as I'm doing here. I'm so happy with how the dress turned out and hope you'll give the DIY a try!