Once upon a time, there was a little girl. And for her birthday, this little girl received a dress. This was one of the most beautiful dresses she had ever seen. She raced to her room, put on the dress and wished to not take it off forever. Sooner than she (and her mother) would have liked, this dress became a bit too short, a bit too tight and eventually would just not button up. They both knew that the first life of this dress was coming to an end.
Her mother thought for a bit and decided she would give this dress a second life. She decided to turn it into a skirt. Here is what she did:
She carefully cut the dress in a straight line, back and fronts together, just underneath the arm seam. (She also noted that if she wanted the skirt to be even longer, she could cut along the shoulder seam and cut the sleeves completely off, she would just need to sew up the sleeve holes from the inside to create a skirt shape.)
She then turned the remains of the dress inside out and folded the cut edge (now the skirt waist) down approximately ½”and pressed it.
She repeated this fold, but this time turned the fabric down approximately 1” to create the waistband channel.
After pressing this second fold, she went to her sewing machine (but also noted that she could sew this with a simple hand whipstitch) and stitched 1/8 to 1/4” in from the bottom edge of this fold. As she sewed almost all of the way around the skirt waist, she stopped 1” before reaching the point where she started to leave room for elastic to be fed into this waistband channel. She also repeated this same stitching on the top edge to help the elastic to lay flat after being worn a few times, but noted that this was optional.
Now that the elastic waistband channel was in place, all she had to do was to feed in a piece of 3/4” wide knit or woven elastic which was approximately the length of her daughter’s waist measurement.
She fed it through the channel and when it came out the other side, she stitched both ends of the elastic together three times (just to make sure it didn’t come undone by her active girl!)
She pulled the waistband flat (as after she finished the elastic, it started gathering as it should…) and stitched the last 1” of the bottom seam of the waistband. To add an optional pocket for treasures, she folded under the edges of a square scrap of fabric, pressed it flat, and topstitched along the top edge. Then she pinned it in place and stitched around the three sides as shown.
Voila! Let the twirling begin!
She surprised her little girl with the second life of her favorite dress, now turned into a skirt. Needless to say, it was well received. Her little girl was so happy to be reunited with her dress turned skirt and vowed to wear it as often as possible.
After many twirls, climbs, celebrations and quiet moments, the skirt sadly also started to become a bit too short… And a bit too tight… Her mother noted that she could add a few inches of fabric to the bottom of the skirt to extend the length, and could open up the waistband and add a bit more elastic to extend the waist (as she has done with beloved skirts in the past), however she knew that this dress turned skirt was nearing the end of its second life…
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With every new dress that was made in this way, her little girl became so attached to this dress turned skirt that she thought and thought of how she could give it just one more life, perhaps a life that would last for many more years to come.
Aha! A pillow! One that will be a “lovey pillow”, a “hugging pillow” a “go anywhere pillow” and she began the quick stitches which soon became just that. Here is what she did:
She carefully cut a straight line just below the elastic waistband. She noticed that the fabric shape, after it was un-gathered, formed a rectangle. (She noted that if her fabric did not form a rectangle –but rather a trapezoid- after the cut was made, that she would trim the sides of the skirt fabric so that the top edge length mirrored that of the bottom.)
Next, she took a piece of muslin, flannel, or other stash fabric, cut to the same length (top to bottom) and double width to create a lining.
She stitched up the side to and basically just created a wide “tube” of fabric which mirrored the shape of the skirt fabric.
She slipped this “tube” over the skirt fabric “tube” and stay-stitched the sides so they did not slip while she was seaming them together.
Now that these fabrics were together, still inside out with lining on the top layer, she double-stitched all along the top edge (where the waist of the skirt was) – the double stitching was to prevent any pillow-popping when her daughter hugged it tightly!
Then she double stitched the bottom edge with a 3/4” seam allowance, starting from one side, making sure to leave about 2” open in the middle of the seam.
She then, with the help of her little girl and a trusty chopstick, stuffed this pillow with loose wool, bamboo or another huggable natural fiber.
When it was stuffed a bit more than she thought it should be (realizing it would flatten a bit after a few hugs) she blind stitched the edge (and noted she could also use a whipstitch).
And so, this lovely dress has taken on its third life… which may turn out to be it’s longest life yet…….
Mary lives in Marin County, CA along with her two brave and spritely children, one heroic husband, one entertaining pug and 7 operatic chickens. When she is not working her “day job” as a High School Photography teacher, she is usually sewing, knitting, cooking, farming in the garden, beachcombing, plotting to save the environment and writing on one of her two blogs. You can find her at Poppies and Milk as well as her new joint venture A Non-disposable Life.