What to see a magic trick? No, I’m not going to pull a rabbit out of a hat, or saw anyone in half, BUT I am going to show you this pink and gold dress refashion, and how I took a dress that was too small and made it into a skirt that fits.
Refashions are great, aren’t they? You take something old, ugly, or in this case, something doesn’t fit and you reinvent it. Similar to when Cinderella’s fairy godmother waved her wand and poof! She was a princess.
Well, there was no magic wand used here. Just a sewing machine and a little creativity.
A Celebrity Hand Me Down (Sort of)
Anyway, I found this dress in in LA a few months ago. It was hanging on a rack in a store front window. I immediately fell in love with the colors. Pink, gold and white. Honestly, it doesn’t get much more fun than that. I walked into what I thought was a store and realized it was an alteration shop, and for whatever reason the owner had a rack of clothes in the window for sale.
The dress wasn’t second hand, or something that someone dropped off and never picked up. It was a brand new with tags Cynthia Rowley dress.
I did a little research and found out it was part of her 2018 Resort Collection, and retailed for $500. You can check it out here. It also came in a mini skirt which is adorable.
I tried it on only to realize it was too small #insertsadface. I could get it on, but not zip it up. According to the shop owner a “celebrity”, she did not name, dropped it off because it was given to her as a gift and it was too big. Seriously? Too big? I took the information with a grain of salt. Turns out the dress was not very expensive (under $100) and I thought “I can do something with this”. So I bought the dress and took it home.
Pink and Gold Dress Refashion
I realized the best thing to do with it was make it into a skirt. The silhouette flared out enough that I could cut the top off, raise the waist line a few inches and have a really fun skirt.
First thing I did was cut the bodice off (which I didn’t love anyway). Then I removed the zipper and took it apart at the seams. Next I pulled out a New Pattern 6193 that was already cut to my size and traced it out.
I probably only ended up losing 2-3 inches off the length of the skirt. I used a facing instead of a waistband and reattached the zipper it came with.
Ta-Da! There you go! One refashioned skirt.
I love refashions. They are much less time consuming that sewing an entire project from start to finish. I’m going to do more this summer. In the mean time you can check out this one I did last spring here.
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Thanks for reading. Hope you’re off to a goo week.
Photos by Chloejane Photo + Film