Altered Dress

I have been most remiss in terms of posts so far in July, I am sorry! There's been so much going on and with the Sun shining so brightly, July has just whizzed by so far.
There has been lots of making going on though, the most important of which has been two wedding gifts. For part of one present out came my trusted air-dry clay and letter stamps to make a pair of coasters. As you may have noticed from previous posters I just love the results achieved this technique.

I have also altered a dress, into a skirt, to wear to one of the wedding parties.
Here's a picture of the dress to start with on a hanger, I wasn't keen on how the top part looked on me but love the fabric. It also has a belt (and belt loops) but I forgot to put it on the dress to take the before picture.

The first thing I did was cut the top off from one side of the zip to the other side, without cutting the zip, about 5cm above the seam with the skirt (2cm above the belt loops). I then unpicked the stitches attaching the zip, handily it's an exposed zip which is very popular at the moment so this was very easy. (I think if it was a concealed zip I may have been less inclined to do this step, and would have just folded the top of the zip over and sewn the sides down?)

Also, before starting I had thought I would zigzag stitch the cut edge, fold it over and sew but I hadn't thought about the fact it was lined. This made it very easy- I turned down the outer fabric inwards and the lining fabric down outwards, pinning them together. I made sure the lining was a millimetre or two lower than the outer fabric so it wouldn't show. I then sewed the two together using matching thread, 5mm in from the edge.

I then had to sew the zip in with the top now in-line with the top of the skirt. As the original holes were still visible from where I unpicked, I simply used these lines as a guide, folding the tops in the same manner as it had been originally when it was a dress. I secured this with a few hand sewn stitches. (Now is the time to confess- I had cut the the top off just by eye and hadn't checked the levels on either side of the zip before sewing the seam and sewing the zip in, it resulted in the zip not lying flat. Naughty me! This meant I had to unpick one side of the zip and part of the top seam to make them even before reattaching the zip. Lesson learnt- a quick check saves time!). I left the excess of the zip attached but this could be cut off if it was bothersome.

All in all it took less than 2 hours (and that's including rectifying my stupid mistake) and means I have an item I'll wear in the wardrobe rather than something that just takes up space- yippee ;-)

Until next time craft in earnest, Craftin' Ernest x