Maximum skirt, minimum work

This dress, among many others of the same style, was recently gifted to me by a friend. The busy floral print was right up my alley, but not the lack of straps...and the length, which hovered just above my ankles, wasn't doing it for me. Office chair inconveniences be damned—I like my long skirts floor length or bust!

When faced with a dress that's a dowdy length, you have two options: make it shorter, or make it into a skirt! Because I'd been bemoaning the relative lack of long skirts in my winter collection, I went with the latter.

I picked a length that would just skim the floor if I wore it at waist height with flat shoes, but could be pulled down lower on my hips if I wanted to wear it with heels.

I cut off the bottom and then made another pitiful attempt at a rolled hem. This one was so bad that, out of the entire bottom hem of the skirt, probably only 5 inches in total are actually rolled under. Ugh! I'll have to redo the hem very soon, but it should be good for one trial wear anyway. I watched some videos on how to use a rolled hem foot, so next time I'll be ready! In theory.

 

The liner was now longer than the skirt, so I zigzag-stitched a line about 5 inches from its bottom edge, then cut off below that. I'm beginning to think I should patent this technique—The Unfashionista's Lazy Overlock! It's quick and dirty, but good enough for a liner that won't be seen and won't fray much even if left unfinished.

 

The last step was to convert the smocked bodice into a waistband. I considered leaving it as-is (like I did with the striped tube dress) but this one was thicker (thus harder to double over), and I wasn't likely to ever wear this one as a dress. So I cavalierly chopped off half the smocking, right below one of the horizontal stripes of contrast stitching.

I briefly considered trying to sew the resulting raw edge down in some way, but ultimately I decided that it might be cute if I just let it fray down to the next contrasting stripe. Strategic fraying! A favored technique of lazy sewists everywhere!

 

One more little thing. Because I really liked the print (and mayhaps because I wanted to redeem myself for all the corner-cutting I did in this project!), I decided to salvage the fabric I'd removed. I folded it in half lengthwise, sewed along the edge, turned it inside out, and came up with a ribbon-like belt or sash or what-have-you. Should be fun for accessorizing with, if this skirt survives all the injustices I've done it.

But for the first wear of my new skirt, I left the flashy sash at home, because I wanted to wear a statement sweater instead!

The golden yellow cardigan is a current darling of my closet, which means – much like the literary darlings that writers are admonished to kill – it doesn't really work anywhere! It's a lovely color (mustard: I currently have a thing for it), but to top it all off, it's got colorful embroidery and green sequins! The problem is, the cropped length makes it a pretty awkward pairing with almost any type of bottoms, and the deep V-neck necessitates a second layer underneath. I've only been able to wear it two times in the two years that I've owned it, so I was positively thrilled to find that my new skirt made it possible for a third time!

 

The gaudy embroidery on the sweater, for a change, actually complemented the print on the skirt rather than clashing with it (there's even a pink flower on each that's almost a perfect match!). And the high waist of the skirt neatly abutted the bottom edge of the cardigan, meaning there was no awkward gap I'd have to fill with just the right color. Win win win!

With a success this smashing on my first attempt, I don't even know if it's worth trying to finish this skirt and wear it again. How could I top this outfit?