Hello Readers. My daughter gave me this maxi-dress. She is a lot taller than I am. It fit her perfectly but it was way too long on me. I really liked the fit through the body, what did I want to do with it? I an usually very decisive, but not today.
It was a great dress. It was a tank top bodice with a super long skirt attached. That super long skirt was a little over whelming. It had to be shorter, that much I was sure of.
At first I thought I would just shorten it and make it a maxi-dress for me. A petite maxi-dress. It wasn't bad like this I just wasn't sure if I really wanted a maxi-dress. It can be difficult to deal with such a long skirt at times.
I thought maybe a midi length would be better. This length would still be conservative but easier to walk in than a maxi-dress. (I can be very clumsy. This length was safer.)
So, I kept going. Would I like it just above the knee? Yes, I really would. It seemed great for summer and the crazy heatwave we have had lately. I stopped cutting the dress for a little while and thought about what clothes I really needed. I love dresses but...
I could really use a tank top to survive the hot summer we are having. Sometimes shorts and a shirt are just easier to throw on when you have to wrestle children and animals all day. (One 4 year old boy and one dog.) And it seemed to fit well as a shirt. The skirt was not puffy and I didn't feel like I looked pregnant. Empire waists usually make me look 4 months along with twins. A shirt it was!
As I experimented and tried each different length I got to try them on and be really sure of what I was going to get and if I really liked it. I liked them all but it seemed like a cute top would be the best use for me. Do you agree with my decision? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
***Year End update- This was a great dress and a great tank. I liked it in summer and under a cardigan in early fall when it turns hot in the afternoon.
7 comments:
I REALLY like the above-knee length dress, but the top is very cute, too, and for me, a piece of clothing has to be comfortable and suit my needs to be wearable -- I think you made the right choice! What a nice piece at all lengths, though. I can see why it took awhile to decide.
They all look good on you, but I do like the top version best. I think it will get lots of use this summer.
When I am refashioning a long dress or skirt into a shorter dress or skirt, I usually try to use the cut-off section in some sort of top to wear with the shortened skirt. (Extra fabric from a contrasting color or print will often be needed to complete the top.) If I do trial and error cuts for the skirt length, I limit my options on what can be done with the cut-off part, because after several trials it's cut into multiple smaller pieces which are usually harder to use. So I pin up several skirt lengths to check them out, before actually cutting anything off. Lately I have been telling myself that the coordinating top with the skirt would be too matchy-matchy anyway, so I can just try out multiple cuts without worrying about doing something with the cut-off pieces. Sometimes I drive myself nuts trying to use up all the left-over pieces!
are you going to sew all those sections back together and make a skirt?
Personally I would have left it as a dress at the knee. You don't need dresses though and it looks great as a top too! It's too bad you didn't know that from the beginning though so you could have saved the excess fabric for something else. Now you've got little pieces of it that may not be useful for much. :(
I agree. Love the top. Thanks for the idea. I have a dress in my closet that I've never worn because it's long. What was I thinking? I just can't give it away and have been trying to think what I could do with it. I'm going to see if I can also make a shirt out of it. Thanks. Love seeing all your remakes.
Thanks so much Lynda! I hope your dress works out well.
Happy sewing to you.
Chickie
Thanks or the comments Jenny, KD, Pai, and Athena,
I love hearing from readers. I don't know if I can do anything with the scraps of this dress but scrap fabric is always handy so I will save it anyway.
Chickie
Post a Comment