One Dress = Two Tops and a Bonus Skirt!
Easy Zero Waste Thrift Flip!
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Easy Zero Waste Thrift Flip! 〰️
Hello Hello! And welcome to my blog!
Ok so as part of a challenge I’m doing this year (the #nonewnew2022 challenge), I’ve committed to making or thrifting all of my clothes this year (underwear and shoes excluded). Now I know this might sound like a difficult challenge, but I’ve actually been having a TON of fun with it! One of the things I’ve been loving is re-fashioning clothes I already own or that I’ve thrifted, and that’s what I want to share with you today!
I thrifted this knit dress and immediately fell in love with the color, plus I could tell the fabric was good quality so I purchased it (I think it was 3 or 5 dollars, can’t remember) and took it home to try it on.
The light was changing so quickly as I was taking these photos. It looks like the dress is two different colors lol.
As you can see from my pics, it’s VERY form fitting, particularly around the hips and bum. I’m not a fan of showing off every lump and bump on my figure, and I’m also not a huge fan of having to wear shapewear. Some Spanx would probably make this dress wearable, but even so, the style didn’t really feel “ME”. I’m not a huge fan of ruffles on a hemline that low. I’m only 5’1” and I feel like those kinds of ruffles make me look even shorter.
Not to worry though! I had an idea for how to make this piece work in my wardrobe. I actually like a snug fitting cami as a layering piece, so my initial thought was to cut it in half and re-hem it as a simple V-neck cami, but something told me I could get TWO tops out of this one dress, so I made sure to cut carefully and set the bottom portion aside while I hemmed the top.
I love how the cami turned out! Here I’ve paired it with a self-drafted skirt that is still form fitting, but not uncomfortably tight. I made the belt a while ago using some knit fabric scraps.
I threw on a thrifted denim shirt dress to finish off the look :)
Sewing Tip: When hemming knits on a regular sewing machine you’ll want to use a zig zag stitch and you might also want to use a walking foot. Either that or place some tissue paper under the presser foot to help the fabric along. Don’t pull it! If you do, you’ll end up with a stretched out, wavy hem and nobody wants that.
So, once that was done, I tried on the ruffled piece, imagining it as strapless top and decided that all it needed was some elastic at the neckline and it would be good to go. Now that the ruffle is up around my midsection, I like it SO much better! It feels like something I would wear. Matter of fact, I used to have a similar top in navy blue that I refashioned from a ruffled skirt. I loved that top!
Here I’ve paired it with my go-to denim skirt that I thrifted a while back.
Anyway, so then I realized that I could also rock this new ruffled top as a skirt! I tried it on with my new Lola Tank from Staystitch Pattern Co. (It’s a bonus pattern offered with this month’s Sew-it-Academy course) and it’s giving me serious tennis outfit vibes!
Note: If your upper bust and waist measurements are drastically different, this hack might not work for you because you’ll end up stretching your elastic out, but mine are within a few inches of each other, plus I used a good quality elastic and the fabric has excellent stretch and recovery, so it’s worked out perfectly!
And the best part is, I got 3 garments for a fraction of the cost of one (even adding in the cost of the elastic and thread!); I stuck to my challenge and I kept a perfectly good clothing item from ending up in a landfill. That’s a win in my book!
If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and I hope this has inspired you to look at clothing in new ways, whether from your own closet or when you’re out shopping. It’s often just a small tweak that will change something from an item that sits in your closet collecting dust, to one that you feel confident in and will reach for again and again!
Until next time sewing friends!