Skirt to dress AKA playing with the dressform…

I bought this size 22 skirt from a charity shop ages ago – I love larger clothing because the skirts tend to be long, voluminous and elasticated which means there can be quite a bit of lovely fabric to work with!

I cut off the waistband and the patterned hem and started pinning like mad on my dressform. Sorry about the lousy pictures but I did a lot of this at night and did a couple of variations.

Princess seams (the gores fall in roughly the right place) with the old hem used as a sash belt, straps and band.

Empire line with the hem becoming the bodice and straps.

Gathered under the bust so I don’t get all squished!

The hem loosely pleated and tacked to the bust. I hate this. It was an attempt to give myself boobs but it just looks silly!
I think I like the top one best because it could become my “50’s dress from stash” as listed in my projects in the pipeline. It also has more shape than the empire line. It would need to be shorter than it is at the moment, and I’ll need to cut a bit of fabric away, so I’ll have some left over for another project – matching headscarf? Heehee.
If you don’t already have a dressform I really urge you to get one. Mine is a second-hand Singer something-or-other I got really cheap on Ebay and it adjusts everywhere. It makes refashioning clothing a lot more fun and easy because you can try out quite a few ideas quickly without having to put on pin-filled clothing and look in the mirror. You can also see the back! Of course it doesn’t rule out trying on the clothes altogether when you’re making, but it can be helpful to pin your favourite idea to the form and leave it for a few days just to get used to it – you usually come up with a few improvements!
I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Beccy