How to Make a Dress Into a Two-Piece: Cute Skirt & Crop Top Set

Pam Oduor
by Pam Oduor
8 Materials
$10
2 Hours
Easy

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a dress into a two-piece set. I took a very large dress and decided to turn it into something new, using some of the details that were in the dress already. If you want to make a DIY two-piece outfit, then follow along with these steps. Let’s get started!

Tools and materials:

  • Oversized dress
  • Wide and thin elastic
  • Scissors
  • Pins
  • Sewing machine
  • Safety pin
  • Measuring tape
  • Fabric chalk or marker
DIY dress into two-piece

This is the dress I’m going to work with. As you can see, it’s really large and baggy, so I have a lot of material to work with.

Measuring the dress fabric to make the skirt

1. Mark the length of the skirt

First, I marked the length of the skirt. You can gauge the skirt length using your own measurements or preferences.

How to make a two-piece outfit from a dress

2. Mark the width of the hips

My hip measurement is 40 inches, so I divided that by 2 to get the measurement I need to mark here. Also, I shortened this to 18 inches because the fabric is stretchy.

Cutting out the fabric

3. Cut out the fabric

Cut the fabric along the lines you’ve just measured. 

Pinning the skirt ready to sew

4. Pin and sew the skirt

Turn the fabric inside out. Pin and sew the side seam.

How to turn a dress into a skirt and top

5. Fold the top of the skirt

Fold the top of the skirt over twice, leaving enough room for an elastic waistband. Pin and sew down.

Inserting the elastic into the skirt waistband

6. Insert the elastic

Feed the elastic into the skirt waistband. Use a safety pin to help you. Then, sew the ends of the elastic together and seal the opening.

Making a DIY two-piece outfit

7. Cut out the top fabric

Actually, I’m not going to use the top of the dress to make my tube top. Instead, I cut out the remaining fabric from the skirt.

Pinning the tube top ready to sew

8. Pin and sew the tube top

Place the two pieces of fabric on top of each other, then pin and sew the side seams.

How to make a two-piece outfit from a dress

9. Hem and sew the elastic

I was feeling lazy, so I simply sewed my elastic to the top of the tube top as I was hemming the raw edges. In my defence, this stretchy fabric is a little hard to work with, and I was losing patience!


The elastic is the size of my bust, so this ensures the tube top fits my body. I also hemmed the bottom of the tube top by folding and sewing down, for a clean finish.

Inserting strips into tunnels for ruching

10. Insert strips for ruching

My dress already came with these two tunnels of fabric on the skirt part, so I decided to use them. I snipped the tunnels open and inserted elastic, but you could make strips from the same dress fabric for the same ruching effect.

How to turn a dress into a skirt and crop top

11. Secure the ruching

Once the elastic is fed through, tie the ends at the waist end of the skirt, or stitch together and close the fabric opening.

How to make a dress into a two-piece

How to make a dress into a two-piece tutorial

This is my finished DIY two-piece outfit! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to turn a dress into a skirt and crop top. Let me know what you think in the comments section!

Suggested materials:
  • Oversized dress
  • Wide and thin elastic
  • Scissors
See all materials

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