Raspberry Sorbet Skirt

When I found this dress at Goodwill I was much more interested in the skirt than the top.  Which is good, because the skirt fit and the top did not.

I'm looking super grumpy in an effort not flash you all.  Too small and see-through is not a good look for a shirt on me!

I was just going to cut the shirt off since the skirt had an elastic waist already, but it turns out the casing for the elastic was half shirt, half skirt.  Ah well.  I ripped out that seam.

Pinned and sewed a new seam and new casing.

Grabbed my bodkin and the original elastic which was both in great shape and the perfect length.

A few quick stitches to join the ends of the elastic and then close the casing, and voila!  A pretty new skirt with pockets.  Pockets on skirts are my favorite.  The length on my new skirt, however, was not.

The pin was to mark where my knees were.  Then I gave it an asymmetric chop, flipped it inside out, pinned and hemmed.

It's not a big difference in hem height - the front hits the top of my knees and the back hits the bottom, but it's plenty fine for me!

A Skirt on the Wild Side

When I was pouring through the skirt racks at Savers, I immediately grabbed this piece and did not put it down:

I mean, it was obviously too long but look at that pattern at the bottom!  Giraffes!  It's also a broomstick skirt so I figured that shortening it would be easy.

I used my red skirt as a pattern since it was similarly flowy.  I didn't leave a seam allowance because my red skirt is a touch too long and hits me right below the knees if I don't roll the waist band up.

Chop!  I used the pattened "fold the cut part over as you go to keep your hem straight" technique here.  It tooks some time since there was an amazing amount of fabric here.  Can you see how great those giraffes are, though?

Next I pinned alll that fabric at the top and then stitched it down to make a casing for my new elastic waistband.

I threaded the elastic through and stitched it together!

And voila!  A fantastic, flowy skirt in my favorite flame-y colors.  I immediately wore it to work the next day and got a million compliments.  It's super fun to twirl in, although probably dangerous for windy days.

I will note that despite my folding my hem was not perfectly even.  It was only off by an inch and a half in one place, though, and I found that if I kept the shorter side in front the hem looked even because my butt lifted the longer side just the right amount!  So, yay for happy accidents, and my large caboose. ;)