{Mini Tutorial} Up-cycled Dress to Skirt

Many years ago (like 5+ years) I bought this Bitten dress. At the time it was Sarah Jessica Parkers hot new fashion line that had just came out. I was so excited--so excited that I only wore it ONCE after I purchased this dress. It has sat in my closet for years taking up valuable space. I cleaned out my closet a few months back and this was one of the items that I figured I could up-cycle. 

I started by seam ripping the zipper out of the dress. It was a perfectly good zipper and I had nothing better to do than sit on the couch, watch tv, and seam rip! 

I then cut the top from the skirt. 

I pinned the lining and outer skirt fabric together. Not pictured; I measured my waist, cut an elastic waistband, sewed the elastic waistband together to create a circle, and then began sewing the skirt onto the elastic waistband. My skirt fabric was much larger than my waist which aloud me to get the gathered look. While sewing I would pull on the elastic waistband which would allow the skirt fabric to gather. This project is very similar to my From Trash to Treasure post last September. 

Here is the finished product!

I absolutely LOVE it and am so glad I decided to make the 5+ year old brand new dress into a skirt!

 *Big thanks to Mr. Woodsy for taking 5 million photo's of me and having me critique him on each and every photo!