Piece of Cake (Candy?)

I’ve been playing catch up…on my life! I love the blogging world, but my real life is the one I am living and I’ve been trying to live more of it recently! I wanted to share the easiest refashion ever with you, though! This skirt started out as a dress. And, not just any dress…this is one of my daughter’s all-time faves—the candy dress! It’s perfect for this child who loves candy more than almost anything else. She also wore this dress more than any other one. We got 2 years out of it, but we wanted more!

I prefer to donate clothes rather than upcycle or refashion, but I could not give this one up yet, so I gave it a new life instead. Would you like to see how easy it is? Of course you do! This would work for lots of styles, but you will see why it is so easy with this style—other styles might need a little more effort, but not much so try it out!

Instructions

Lay the dress out flat.

Place a skirt that is the right size on top of the dress to get an idea of proper length and waist measurements. This is a pretty loose measurement—just check it out so see if you can avoid hemming or any other unnecessary alterations!

Carefully cut the dress apart as close to the sleeves as possible and across the width. You want this cut to be the same distance from the waistband all of the way across. I won’t lie, though—I eyeballed it!

Mark the center of the back waistband with a pin or marking.

Fold the raw edge under 1/4 inch. Zig zag stitch this in place (I didn’t do this originally and realized I needed to do it to hold the knit in place—that stuff is so wiggly! You may notice I didn’t do it on the entire waistband—just ignore that and do it. Trust me!)

Fold the waistband over again so that it meets the top of the inside seam where the skirt was gathered to the waistband. Sew in place along the edge leaving an open space at the center back (marked) to feed the elastic through. (This picture shows the outside view—not sure why I didn’t get the inside view, too—sorry!)

Feed the elastic through the waistband casing using a safety pin.

Pull the ends out and sew together securely.

Ease elastic into space in casing. Insert a ribbon or tag to mark the back and sew the casing closed.

Voila! You are done and it probably only took about 15 minutes. I love this kind of project!

It’s a little long which is perfect because we can get at least 2 years out of it. When all is said and done, this one purchase will get 4 years or more of use—from the same child!

This skirt is comfortable for twirling, playing and just plain sittin’.

Whatever your little sassafras is doing, she will love doing it in this skirt!

Have you refashioned the perfect item?

Leave me a comment and tell me about it—this refashioning could get addicting!
(Linking to the link parties in my side bar and these:)