This is a dress I made last summer. The pattern came free with a magazine. Despite some misgivings I decided to have a go at making it.

However, I should have heeded the warning on the packet. “Easy” is usually a synonym for “completely shapeless and won’t fit. You might get away with it if you are stick thin but if you are a bit chunky, forget it”.

I am definitely on the chunky side and there was no getting away from the fact that the finished dress looked like a sack. I made a little belt but it still looked dreadful. It was utterly shapeless and the facings wouldn’t behave. I pressed them the right way and understitched them, but it made no difference at all.

I do not like having clothes in my wardrobe that I do not wear because it is an inefficient use of space. So I set about turning this horrible, shapeless dress and its ridiculous facings into something I could actually wear without needing to cover most of it up with a knee length jumper.

I decided to turn it into a skirt and here is how to do it if you want to do the same!

How to Turn a Dress into a Skirt

1. Try the dress on and mark where your waist is.

2. Remove the zip

3. Cut off the top part of the dress along where you marked with the pins. Fold it in half to check that it is symmetrical.

4. Add the zip. The zip I used in the dress was quite long, too long for a skirt. Fortunately I had another, shorter zip in the same colour. Otherwise I would have cut down the original zip I used in the dress.

I pinned it over the back seam as this was where the zip was in the dress and some of the seam was still open. Then I tacked it, then sewed it in place. Then unpicked the rest of the back seam to free the zip.You can find a more detailed tutorial in how to put in a zip here!

5. Try the skirt on. If it needs adjusting, you could either gather it or take it in at the sides. I took the sides in as it only need altering a little bit.

6. Make a waistband. It will need to be 8 – 10 cm wide and long enough to go round your waist, plus a bit extra. I used the belt I had made. You could use fabric from the top part of the dress or make the waistband out of different fabric altogether.

Fold the waistband half lengthways and press. Fold the raw edges into the middle and press again. Attach the waistband to the skirt by sewing the raw edge of the waistband to the raw edge of the skirt on the wrong side. Then fold the waistband over and top stitch all the way round, remembering to tuck the raw edges at the ends underneath.

Transformed! From this…

To this…!