Tip of the Day... Recycle

One of my favourite dresses from a few years ago was a I.N.C. International Concepts dress.

It was a summer dress with built in padded bra, and criss-crossed back straps and a pleated skirt.

The fabric:  a lightweight stripped cotton with big embroidered yellow flowers along the hemline.

For some reason it didn't fit when I was digging out my summer clothing from storage.  It might have something to do with cookies but that is a completely different blog.

Now has a new life as a skirt since I couldn't part with the fabric.

Since the skirt of the original dress had pleats it was an easy transformation.

• Cut along the waist seamline and closed the side zipper opening.  
• Serge the waistline edge and gather.

Now it is ready for a waistband.  The fabric is a cotton and I could easily have used a neutral cotton fabric to match the black pinstripes on the white but the plan was to use some decorative elastic instead.

There are some fabulous elastics out there now.  I found this two inch wide ruffled edge elastic that worked well.

• Overlap the elastic over the gathered fabric and stitch with a stretch stitch.  If you machine doesn't have on a small zig-zag stitch will work will too.