A Silky Solution

I found this 100% silk dress at a thrift shop. Silk is challenging to work with for me but I love the fabric so much that it's worth it. It's far too big and too long but thats perfect- I need the extra material to not mess up this refashion! Here is the dress in all it's dowdiness:

A little 90's, a little err.... something!

This dress has a few layers that wrap around and tie at the side. Here is what it looks like spread out:

Look at all that silk!

First thing I did was cut those extra flaps of fabric off. Next I will put it on my dress form inside-out and pin in the sides to take it in. It's important to take it in before taking any length off because taking it in will make it slightly shorter.

Chop!

I didn't get a picture of it on my dress form but I pinned it in about an inch all the way down each side and then sewed it all the way down each side. 

Next it's time to take off that length! I have a tendency to cut things too short so I made sure to leave enough room to fold it up for a new hem and an inch extra on top of that! That worked perfect for me! It turned out JUST short enough! I used a zig-zag stitch when hemming it because this fabric is stretchy. 

This hem was a pain to pin before hemming but I managed to make it all work out without  any folds or mistakes!

I had to be careful not to pull it through the sewing machine and stretch it out while stitching this hem. It was a bit challenging because I have a habit of doing that! I need to learn to let the feed dogs push the fabric through! Now I have this basic short dress. But not basic for long!

Hi I'm sideways for some reason!

Next I used those extra flaps of material to create layers on top of the skirt. First I placed them down on top of the center seam with about an inch of material below the center seam. I'm going to sew the flap directly on top of the center seam and then fold the larger section down over the skirt. I hope these images will help make sense of that!

These shall become layers!

Those pins are where I will sew over the center seam. Then I will pull those larger sections down, creating layers over the skirt.

Stitch!

And here is the end result! Next I will show you what I did to the back, where the zipper is.

This next picture is to show you how I did the back. (This image is upside down- sorry about that!) I tucked the right side of the layer in right at the zipper. Then on the left side I left enough extra material so that the flap can be pulled over the zipper and snapped onto the right side. 

I did this because I didn't want the layering and over lapping to only occur on the front of the dress. I wanted it to also happen in the back! Here is a (sideways) image of the snaps. That visible stitching won't be visible once I wear it with the belt I make next. 

I used the leftover fabric from the bottom of the dress to make into a belt. I sewed it inside-out and then turned it right side-in and sewed up the end that had been left open to do so.

My belt pics aren't the best but hopefully you get the idea. Here is my after picture of the completed dress:

Front! I tie the belt at the side.

The snaps on the back flap on the right hand side can't be seen because the belt covers them!

This was a lot of work but I love how it turned out!