How to Turn a Blouse and Skirt Into a Dress

melissa
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 293 Posts

June 25, 2015

Re-purposed Dress - Finished dress made from a blouse and a skirt. I had a special occasion coming up and wanted a new dress. My budget was quite tight so I decided to make my own from clothes I already had. I had 2 items that I had purchased for only a couple bucks from a thrift shop. I never wear them and the shirt was too big anyways. So I decided to cut them up and make them into something new.

I was very happy with the results, I received many complements, and I got a dress for free. Yay! This is very easy to do. If you can turn your machine on and sew a straight line, you can make a dress too!

Total Time: Hour or less

Yield: 1 dress

Supplies:

shirt or blouse
skirt
sewing machine
scissors
straight pins

Steps:

Find your desired shirt.

Re-purposed Dress - blouse used for dress top

Find your desired skirt.

Re-purposed Dress - skirt used for dress bottom

Cut the waistband off of your skirt.

Cut your shirt where you want the waistline to be. I wanted sort of an empire waist.

You will leave your skirt right side out, turn your shirt inside out. You will put it over and around the skirt. Just be sure to have the front of your shirt turned the right way, in line with the front of your skirt. You'd hate to finish sewing and realize it's facing the wrong way!

Re-purposed Dress - laying out the dress

You will pin your edges and sew around the entire hem with a running stitch first. This is simply your longest stitch setting. Why? Because your shirt and skirt are more than likely "not" the exact same width around. By making a running stitch, this will allow you to make sure all the gathering is even before you make your final seam.

After you make the running stitch, try the dress on and make sure any gathering is straight and that it is loose enough to get on before you permanently decide the size!
Now you will go back and make your small, permanent seam.

Front...

Re-purposed Dress - Finished dress made from a blouse and a skirt.

I liked it better with a belt.:)

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Comments

Yappless

June 27, 20150 found this helpful

I love to see clothing upcycle. I am losing weight (intentional) and I have my favourites in my clothing I have been searching for simple updates to continue stretch my wardrobe $. Thanks for this simple project.

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