How to Refashion A Dress Into A Skirt

Hello! It’s my #ToolThursday weekly review post and this week I have tried out Vlieseline Waistshaper interfacing. It is basically a strip of interfacing with perforated lines to guide where you press/sew in order to create a perfect waistband without any pattern pieces.

Now I am no pattern drafter so not having to do a bunch of maths to work out the dimensions of a waistband is a huge bonus for me! My sewing time is limited so I don’t want to spend my time carefully measuring out precise rectangles onto my fabric. I just want to cut and sew!

The reason why I think this is especially great for refashioning is because when we are upcycling exisiting garments we often don’t have pattern pieces. We have to make do with the fabric that we have in the garment and often it means we aren’t following a specific pattern, rather just making it up as we go along! I like that with this product I can make a waistband out of a relatively small strip of fabric, for this skirt I didn’t have enough fabric in the bodice to make a waistband. Fortunately the dress came with a narrow waist tie and I managed to unpick it and get a piece big enough for the waistband as you can see below:

I have had a Jaeger tencel dress in my wardrobe for about a year. I bought it from the charity shop and was thrilled with my bargain but unfortunately I only wore it a couple of times as it was way too tight on the arms, I considered taking the sleeves off but there was a weird underarm gusset and there was a big pleat in the back that always seemed to sit strangely – I could never make it stay looking nice. The fabric is gorgeous though so I was determined to get some use out of it – a skirt would be perfect!

I simply cut the bottom of the dress off at a measured length – it honestly was done carefully and it isn’t wonky but I did this a few months ago and chucked it into a ‘To-do’ pile which is how it ended up this crumpled mess! I gave it a good iron and carried on.

I stitched two lines of basting stitches along the top of the skirt piece and gathered that before putting it to one side. I then found a piece of fabric big enough for the waistshaper interfacing and gave it an iron before laying the interfacing on top. It was easy to iron on – simply press with no steam for 8s and it was securely fastened.

I then pinned my waistband piece to the gathered skirt and stitched along the perforated line as you can see below:

Once the waistband was attached I stitched the short ends closed with right sides together and turned them out, I then ironed along the other perforated line in the interfacing so that all the seam allowances are enclosed in the waistband on the inside. I topstitched it all closed and then added a button and buttonhole and I was done! It took me about an hour and a half and I now have a skirt that I enjoyed making and will get a lot of wear out of. I have also harvested the buttons from the top piece for a future project as those Jaeger buttons are lush!

I am glad I have waistshaper in my sewing kit now, I definitely will  turn to it for upcycling projects in the future! I hope you have found this useful!

For more information you can head to  www.ladysewandsew.co.uk for stockists as well as https://www.instagram.com/ladysewandsewhenley/ and https://www.instagram.com/vlieseline_uk/

Disclaimer: ⭐️Vlieseline Wasitshaper was provided free of charge in exchange for a review. I chose the product and what to make with it. All opinions are totally my own, and I wouldn’t recommend something I didn’t like!