I found some what I thought were some lovely dresses online a few years ago. They fitted my top half fine but must have been made for people with no shame, as they hardly covered my nether regions. So they ended up in my wardrobe unloved.

I loved the colour of this aqua strapless dress, and was wearing it as a skirt for a while until I noticed the frilly hem was falling off.


I think I could have sewed it back on but decided those frills had never been my style anyway.








So I unpicked them off with my trusty unpicker.














The edge of the unpicked seam was still in good overlocked condition so I just turned up the edge and sewed it down with matching thread.












Now I love wearing it as it is definitely a top length, not a dress, so hopefully will get some more wear out of it this hot summer!

I think I love refashioning Men's shirts! I found this one at an Op shop for about $2 and thought I might be able to do something with it. After last time making a top from a Men's shirt I thought I should try a skirt this time. I had a look around Pinterest and was inspired by this page of ideas.

The Men's shirt was a size 42 and was the largest I could get on that day. Next time I would try to get something larger to have more fabric to play with.

First up I chopped off the sleeves and upper collar area. 

I ended up chopping about 5 cm above the pocket as I wanted to keep to pocket detail.

But it ended up being too high on the skirt so I should have just chopped it at the widest part to start with. 






Then the scissors chopped off the sleeve cuffs.

I kept the buttons - I love keeping buttons for some reason!








I then chopped the sleeve material in half long ways to make the waist band for the skirt.

The top of the sleeve was rounded so I straightened it up with the scissors.










I had quite a bit of fabric in the sleeves and thought I could use them as ties to give some interest to the waist so I evened up part to the sleeve fabric to be about 10cm wide.










I decided I wanted to keep the pocket but not in its original place so I carefully unpicked it.

Then onto some sewing.

I pieced together the sleeve parts for my waist ties and overlocked them together and turned them inside out so the rough edges were on the inside.







I then got the rest of the wider reserved sleeve pieces and overlocked them together to make a circle about 20 cm larger than my waist.

I sewed in the waist ties where my hips would be.








Then I overlocked the waist band to make a tube  which ended up being about 10 cm wide.

That part was then overlocked onto the rest of the shirt which I had straitened the top of with my scissors. I left a 5cm gap at the back to thread in some elastic.











Then I carefully re sewed the pocket back onto the shirt front lower down.

I also sewed the front of the shirt down by the buttons so when I moved around there wouldn't be any embarrassing gaping parts through the buttoned up part.






Then I threaded 3cm elastic that was cut to fit my waist through the hole in the waistband and sewed the ends together well. Then I sewed the gap up.


I am really happy how the skirt turned out since I made it up as I went along. The waist ties can be tied to the front or the back. I think I prefer the back as it gives it a bit more interest.

The only thing though is it does look a bit like my high school uniform with the small checks but Mr T doesn't mind that at all!

We had a wonderful couple of years when lots of our gorgeous friends got married. I ended up with a lot of dresses suitable to be a wedding guest that have been sitting in my wardrobe unused and unloved. 
There doesn't seem to be many occasions to wear a pretty frock when you are surrounded by play dough and finger paint every day.

I thought that perhaps I would wear this pretty aqua dress more as a skirt. 
Also while looking through Pinterest  there seems to be a trend for flowy skirts at the moment. 

So firstly I unpicked the bodice from the skirt. I'm going to save that for something else I think.

It was all a bit rough at the top so I over locked the seam.

Then I turned down the top hem about 5 cm and stitched around the top, making a tube.

I then thread  some elastic through the tube with a safety pin, and stitched the hole shut.

This has made the skirt about knee length now and is super comfortable and airy. It feels great even on a hot sticky day. The only problems I had was dealing with the satin type fabric at the front of the skirt as it was very slippery to sew with, but it still turned out alright in the end.

I really like how it turned out and have worn the skirt heaps.
Also have had lovely comments every time I have worn it.

Unfortunately the best photo I have to prove I wore it to my school ball is the one to the left..... I know, really this is the best! I don't know who was taking photos, but I think they may have had a few too many pre-drinks!

So last month we got invited to a dress up Halloween Party and I raided my wardrobe and the dress up box (I'm a theatre person, we have dress ups for adults at home!).

I found some angel wings and some hardcore bling and my ball dress so a fallen angel I was.

Unfortunately the dress needed to be spiced up a little to make me truly fallen.

So I took to it with some scissors and chopped it just above the knee. Due to the type of fabric it didn't need hemming.

Then I took it in on both sides to give it more of a pencil skirt slimming shape not so much A-line as previously.

It worked really well, even with me having trouble with the lining getting a bit tangled. Nothing a bit of unpicking couldn't fix!

I'm not sure when I'll wear this dress again, but considering it hasn't been worn in so long I'm glad it got another outing, although I definitely didn't have as much to drink this time around. I must be getting old and responsible!

A lovely work colleague gave me this light cotton dress to have when I was pregnant with Mouse.
It was lovely and cool to wear during the Hawkes Bay summer, but then the belly got too big and I was worried I would stretch it too much.

It did end up getting all out of shape, so I haven't worn it in about 2 years!

As you can see from the before picture I unpicked the top bit from the skirt.

I then over locked the top of the skirt and folded it down about 5 cm. I sewed a straight line around the top to make a tunnel with about 5 cm gap at the back

I then threaded some 2 cm wide elastic through the gap with a safety pin and sewed it shut.

I think I have worn this skirt about 10 times already, which is about a 100% improvement to it gathering dust in my wardrobe. I think it could be made to be a bit more fitting, but it is super comfy.

I still have the top bits and straps which I'll have to find something to do with.
Any ideas?