So, I’ve had this skirt forever. I bought it at a thrift store because duh its a wax print and it HAS GIRAFFES ON IT!! However, it was a wrap skirt. I’m always weary about wrap skirts, people who wear them must live somewhere where there’s never any wind. Also, this particular wrap skirt was gathered into the waistband, making it do some very strange bubbling things around the butt and tummy.. not so flattering. Lucky for me wrap skirts are a great source of fabric, and I finally got around to refashioning it into something I will wear more often.
I decided I wanted to keep this as a skirt and just alter it to a more flattering shape. I drafted a simple straight skirt with a high waist. I love how the shape turned out and its something simple I will be able to use over and over again.
The great thing about a wrap skirt that is ALSO gathered at the waist is that it gives you a lot of fabric to work with for refashioning projects AND the gathered style means you have a lot of straight grain to work with (as opposed to a circle or flared skirt that leaves you with more bias-y pieces). I got to use the original waistband, and I had enough fabric left to cut some little patch pockets for the front – you know I love pockets!!
Everything I cutoff for length I removed from the top so that I could keep the detail at the bottom. Isn’t this fabric so amazing!? I absolutely couldn’t resist it and I’m glad I snagged it even though the style wasn’t really my thing… because now I have this totally adorable little pencil skirt with giraffes on it and I want to wear it every day.
Keep reading for full details on how I executed this look.
Till then, Happy Sewing!
First, I removed the waistband (making sure to keep it to re-attach later). After that I had to break out the gathering stitches. This was pretty easy as the fabric was sturdy and the stitches were old so all I did was give it a little tug and they pulled right out.
Second, I ironed out the fabric and layed out my self-drafted pattern. I lined up the bottom hem with the bottom edge of the skirt and cut out the pieces. I measured the new length of the waist and cut the original waistband to fit. Finally I stitched up the skirt and added a side zipper.
Lastly, I cut out some simple rounded bottom patch pockets out of the extra fabric I cut off and sewed them onto the front.
Just like that, quick and easy!
This project came together super fast I even surprised myself.
If you try something similar I’d love to see it!
Happy Sewing,
Elise Epp says
This is all kinds of wonderful!
admin says
Thanks so much Elise!