Attaching a skirt to a shirt makes a dress

Thank you to A Small Snippet for inspiring me.

I loved this shirt, but it is too short, and it shows my kangaroo pouch.  Even though I love it, I haven't worn it since I got the kangaroo pouch. (Love the kids, but there were definitely sacrifices made to have them. :))

So I found some fabric that matched it, and made me a dress out of it.  It took about an hour.

In the original tutorial, she used elastic thread to gather the fabric, and a sash to cover where the shirt attaches to the skirt.  I had just got some fantastic colored elastic and thought perhaps I could try that instead.

In my experience, elastic thread can be so unpredictable in the final width, while if I used an elastic, I could measure out exactly how wide I wanted my skirt to end up.

I described how to attach a skirt to an exposed elastic in the last post.  Takes lots of pinning, but it's worth it.



First things first.
1.  Measure how wide you want the elastic to be.  I planned to have the skirt meet the shirt below my bustline, so I measured that width, plus a half inch for seam allowance and any day I might feel more bloated than I do today.

2.  Divide and pin the skirt and elastic (as shown here).  Then stretch the elastic as you sew them together so that it is as long as the fabric.  Ends up looking like this.

3.  Cut off the shirt where you want it to attach to the skirt (plus a quarter inch for the seam).

4.  Divide and pin the shirt and elastic the same way you did the skirt and elastic.  They should be about the same size, so there won't be as much stretching when you sew them together.

This is where I used a serger, because I wanted this seam to have some stretch.  The knit was stretchy and so is the elastic.  I imagine there's another way to make this a stretchy seam, but I couldn't tell you.  Sorry.

It ends up looking like this.  Perhaps I will iron it, so that the elastic shows more.



The last thing to do was to hem the skirt.  I would have liked to make it a maxi, as my inspiration did, but I didn't quite have enough fabric, so it ends up somewhere below my knees.  Perhaps if I don't like it enough, I'll put a ruffle on it.  But for now, it's lightweight, (which is necessary with the current weather) and full enough to run after any stray toddlers. AND it took an hour.  Faster than shopping.  I'll take it!