Bulky Dress to Cute Summer Outfit

   Besides having no shape, this dress was also very long: it hung down to my ankles! It was basically a tube with arm holes and a zipper.

   About that zipper, it was on the side of the dress. This would make it difficult for me to take in the dress from the sides. 

   I decided the zipper would serve me best if I moved it to the back of the dress. So out came the thread picker and off came the zipper.

   Then I re-sewed the seam from where I had taken the zipper.

   Before moving the zipper, I figured it'd be easiest if I first cut off the top of the dress, inserted the zipper in the back, took in what was necessary, then reattached the skirt part to the top. That way, I could put pleats in the skirt part to make it flare out some. So I tried on the dress, marked where my waist was, and cut straight across.

The cut wasn't quite straight so I had to do a little trimming. Oh well, live and learn. :)

   The dress had a seam in the back so I picked it apart and inserted the zipper.

   Since the space just above where the seam is didn't quite close all the way, I sewed on a small clasp.

   I had to take in about 1 1/2 inches from the sides of the top.

   With the top part done, I moved on to the skirt part. There were two darts in the back which I took out to give additional room for the pleats.

   It took quite a bit of adjusting and readjusting to get the pleats to line up properly with the existing seams on the top part. But once they were in place, I pinned the skirt to the top and sewed.

   Next up, hemming the skirt. I had to take off about a foot of material.

   Using the fabric I cut off from the hem, I decided to make a bow belt to go with my new dress. First I sewed the ends of two rectangular pieces of fabric together. 

   Then I folded it over (inside-out of course), sewed the open ends together, and turned it right side in.

   I measured the belt around the waist of the dress and cut off the excess.

   To make the ends of the belt pointed, I tucked in the corners, pinned in place, and sewed all around the perimeter of the belt.

   For the bow, I selected a piece of fabric about 4" wide, 10" long and sewed it into a loop. I did the same with another piece of fabric about 1 1/2" wide and long. 

   Taking the bow, I folded the end into an accordion shape, slipped the smaller loop over it, and centered it.

   The bow then was sewed onto the belt.

   Lastly, I attached a snap to the two ends of the belt.

   The dress is complete!

~Gloria