Old Dress Into New Skirt| Elise's Sewing Studio

I’ve been doing a lot of “shopping in my closet” lately, and I thought I’d share my latest project where I sew a maxi dress into a skirt.

Sure, shopping in the store or buying patterns is great. But in this quick beginner sewing tutorial, I’ll show you how I got a “new” skirt in less time than it takes to drive to the mall and find something I like in a store.

A few times a year I like to go through my closet and pull out old clothes I’m not wearing anymore. Sometimes the fit isn’t great and I’ll alter it. Or, if I like the fabric, turn it into something else completely.

In this case, this maxi dress was bought a few years ago a size up from what I usually wear to use as a maternity dress.

My youngest is now 4. It’s time to take that dress back. It is too big in the bust but I like the fabric and it’s in good condition, so I decided to turn it into a maxi skirt.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Maxi dress you aren’t wearing anymore
• Pins
• Chalk
• Fabric Scissors
• 1″ wide braided elastic
• Safety pins

Before I start an upcycle sewing project, I like to wash it first. I have recently started using TruEarth Eco Laundry Strips. It’s eco-friendly detergent that comes in a convenient strip delivered to your mailbox. No more messy and bulky laundry jugs!

Turn your maxi dress into a skirt by first marking the waisband

Try your dress on. Put a pin where you want the waistband of the dress to be. We will be leaving the hem of the dress alone in this project. If the dress is too long, then measure the hem of the dress to the waist, and take any extra length off the waist instead.

Take off the dress and lay it flat on your table. Measure 1.5″ above your pin and draw a line with tailor’s chalk or whatever you have to mark fabric with (I used pencil when I first started sewing). Cut the top off your dress here.

Serge or zig zag stitch the cut edge of your skirt here to finish the raw edge of fabric to avoid fraying. If your skirt has a lining, serge or zig zag that together with the other fabric.

Make the elastic casing for your skirt

After you have serged or zig-zagged around the top edge, fold the edge down 1.5″ all the way around. Stitch your elastic casing 1.25″ down from the folded edge, leaving about a 2″ opening so we can feed the elastic through in the next step.

Create the elastic waistband

Take your elastic and put it around your waist to get the correct measurement. It should be smaller than your waist so it stretches to the right size, but not so small so it feels uncomfortable.

Pull the elastic around your waist a bit so it feels right, and mark the elastic length. Then add 2″ seam allowance so that the elastic ends can be sewn overlapping each other.

Put a safety pin on one side of the elastic, and start to feed it through the casing all the way around. If you have a long hook, you can use it to grab the safety pin after it’s been pulled through part way to make this step faster, but this is optional.

Once you have pulled the elastic all the way through, safety pin it to the other end of the elastic, overlapping the pieces about 1″. Check to make sure that the elastic isn’t twisted in the casing.

If you like, you can try the skirt on here to make sure you are happy with the length and the tightness of the waist elastic.

Sew the elastic

Sew the elastic closed securely. I like to sew an X and then a box around it, backstitching well.

Sew the opening in the casing shut.

You’ve turned your maxi dress into a skirt!

It’s kind of like you have a new skirt now, without the lineup to the fitting room at the mall.

If you tried the tutorial, leave a comment and let me know how it went.

Want to learn more about altering clothes you already have, to fit your unique body and style? Receive my free guide full of tips to get you started doing your own clothing adjustments by signing up to my newsletter here.

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If you’ve read this far, you’re probably someone who likes to wear skirts. Have you ever wanted to draft your own skirt pattern? Skirt patterns are a good project to start learning pattern drafting. Learn how to make a custom skirt pattern using just a few of your own measurements with my video and downloadable instructions in Sew A Size You Workshop.