Refashioning a Skirt into a Swimsuit Cover-Up!

So, my darling husband and I are going on our 10 year anniversary trip ALONE to Florida to stay with some friends and be children free for 5 days!! So during my busy summer I realized I probably needed a good swimsuit cover-up for all that quite time I am going to spend on the beach and our friends' boat. So after a few missteps (sometimes refashioning doesn't go as well as planned) I came up with one that is not only wearable but I think a little flirty and comfortable. All it took was an old knit skirt. It is ankle lenght and I liked to wear it with knee high boots in the winter about 7 years ago so it was time to be refashioned.
 
I cut it in 2 (I tried it on to determine where to cut). And sewed 2 button holes onto the front center for the tie to come out.


And then sewed it back together overlapping about 3/4 inch so that I could string a tie through. I left the edges raw since it is knit and wont fray (and this way I can preserve a little more of the lenght).

And that's all!! It looks allot like some of the cover-ups I see in the stores. I didn't have to alter the width in anyway. If you want to make it a little longer you can sew a piece of fabric on to the inside and you won't have to cut the fabric. And it looks great with your swimsuit!!

 Hope you are having a great summer!!!

Another Refashion

Using the same idea that I used making the Rocker Boy T-Shirt Dress I refashioned 2 more old shirts into dresses by using fabric from old maternity pants.

The other refashioned dress has turned out to be a  favorite of my oldest daughter so I thought I would use some old clothes that were destined for Goodwill and see if I could hit another home run.

And this time I happened to have 2 of the same shirts in different sizes- both with the same problem, way to short!- so I made matching dresses.

Here are the shirts:

And here are the maternity pants:

I cut the pants into strips and sewed them together into 3 loops (for each dress). I attached a 3 1/2 piece of fabric to the shirts that I attach the ruffles to. I should have taken a photo of this but if you need a visual you can check out my tutorial on Rocker Boy T-Shirt Dress.

Because the fabric I used for the ruffles were a kind of cotton blend (not t-shirt material) I did have to hem the ruffles on the top and the bottom of each one. Attach them to the extra fabric and Ta DA! you have a dress!! or two...

I paired the dresses with a couple pair of legging shorts I made from old t-shirts a couple months ago: post here. 

And here is what we get: 

Dresses as comfortable as a t-shirt.

Refashioning 2 Shirts into a Dress

So I am going to pull a couple of items out of my goodwill pile and see if I can make them into something usable again. In my first attempt I found a shirt that was too short and never worn by either girl. (I hate it when their little tummies stick out.)

And a shirt/dress that the girls also never worn because the sleeves were always too tight. The colors and pattern looked good together so an idea was born...

I took the bottom half of the shirt/dress, cut a little off the flower pot shirt and added a strip of pink scrap fabric for a belt.

I sewed the top and the bottom together and then sewed the pink belt onto the raw edge.

then flip the pink belt up and fold under, sew around and you are done!

On hint to making this turn out is matching the width. If the bottom bigger and you will need to gather it before attaching and if the top is bigger you might think about adding fabric to the bottom to make it the same width as the top.