Beth Huntington offers tips and techniques for how to refashion clothes to suit your style in The Refashion Handbook (Stash Books, 2014). With clear instructions and lots of photos showing the steps from thrifted clothing to finished article, even beginning crafters will have no difficulty learning to redefine their fashion by creating their own clothes. The following project demonstrates how to make this stylish dress from a shirt and skirt.
Refashion Techniques:
• Shorten a skirt
• Redesign a shirt to make a bodice
• Alter a skirt lining
• Attach a sewn-in elastic waistband
How to Refashion the Dress
1. Measure from your waistline to your desired hem length. Add 1/2 inch for a seam allowance and mark this distance, from the bottom of the skirt up, all across the skirt. Cut on the line. If your skirt is lined, cut the lining at the same time as the outer skirt and keep them together.
2. Measure from your shoulder to your waistline. Add 1/2 inch for a seam allowance, mark this distance all across the bottom of the shirt, and cut on the line.
3. Pin the top of the skirt and lining together.
4. Use the longest stitch on your machine to baste across the top of the skirt and the lining.
5. Fold the shirt in half, lining up the side seams, and mark the center front and center back at the bottom. Repeat with the skirt.
6. Tuck the shirt down inside the skirt, with right sides together. Line up the raw edges, matching the side seams, the center fronts, and the center backs. Adjust the skirt to fit the top by pulling the bobbin thread of the basting stitches as needed to gather it. Pin in place all around.
7. Stitch all 3 layers together using a zigzag stitch and a 1/2-inch seam allowance.
8. Cut a piece of 1/4-inch wide elastic to your waist size minus 3 inches.
9. Use a washable marking pen to mark the elastic in half and then in quarters.
10. With the cut ends at the center back, and matching the quarter marks to the center front and side seams, pin the elastic to the waistline seam allowance.
11. Using a zigzag stitch and keeping the marks lined up, stretch the elastic slightly as you sew it to the waistline so the waistline of the dress stays flat.
Reprinted with permission from The Refashion Handbook: Refit, Redesign, Remake for Every Body by Beth Huntington and published by Stash Books, 2014.
