A Modest Princess

I started with a strapless dress a few sizes too big and didn’t like any of the options of adding sleeves to this dress so decided to make it into a skirt with a yoga waistband using the bottom of a t-shirt.

I first seam ripped the skirt from the bodice of the dress as well as the zipper which I of course saved for a future project.

I next sewed closed the seam left open from removal of the zipper for both the outer layer and lining of the skirt.

To create the waistband I cut the bottom off a t-shirt, the ideal t-shirt for this is one with four-way stretch.  I cut the tube open, measured the length to fit around my waist and sewed the tube up again.

I waited to trim the excess till after I sewed and tried it on again to make sure it was tight enough to hold up the skirt.

I pinned the waistband seam to match up with the zipper seam of the skirt, found the middle of the waistband and pinned to the opposite side then went around and evenly spread the waistband and skirt to fit each other. Re-using the t-shirt hem as the top of the waistband.

Finally I sewed the t-shirt waistband to the skirt. In order to allow for a little extra stretch I sewed this seam by machine with a zigzag stitch.

Now I have an awesome skirt and with the multiple colors in the print lots of options for tops to match.