Monday, March 22, 2010

Thrift Store Skirt Resize- Hand-Me-Down Rehab

Firecracker was given a really cute little dress made of this same pattern when she was a baby.  Sweet Pea will be growing into it soon, so when I saw this skirt at Goodwill, I knew I had to so something with it for Firecracker even though it was many sizes too big. 
It didn't have a tag inside, but I think it was probably for a teenager.  The skirt had a zipper and flat wide waistband.  My first thought was to take out the zipper and replace it after resizing the skirt.  However, I decided it would be easier to just sew a new seam and put elastic in the back.  (I liked the flat wasteband in the front, so I didn't want elastic there.  I measured it so the new seam would leave the skirt opening wide enough to fit over Firecracker's hips. 
I was somewhat concerned about how the fabric would hold together because the weave was so loose, so I used a french seam.  To do that I sewed the seam down the back WRONG sides together.
I trimmed the seam allowance.  (I didn't want to cut out the excess fabric until the seam had been sewed because I was worried about it fraying.)
Then turned it inside out and sewed the seam again with RIGHT sides together.  This way the raw edges are held inside the french seam.  (Sorry I didn't take a clear picture of the last seam, but if you click on the link, you can see a picture of the french seam.)  Once the new seam was sewn, I sewed two pieces of elastic inside the waistband on the back, to keep the skirt snug around Firecracker's waist (although I wish I'd made this just a bit tighter.)
And with that it's ready to wear.
We've been reading and enjoying a lot of Ramona books lately. We enjoy them particularly because there are many similaries between Ramona and Firecracker. This picture makes me think of Ramona...and of course Firecracker. It makes me smile.
And if you're interested in how I made the shirt, I'll be sharing that soon...

Grab a button from the right sidebar!

1 comment:

  1. Nice work! It will be fun to see the two girls together in their matchy skirts!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I love hearing from you. I also love responding, so please make sure your Blogger account is set up for me to be able to see your email address or include your email address. I've had to stop accepting anonymous comments due to spam. If you don't have any other way to comment, you can always send an email.