Pretty Dress To Even Better Skirt

I picked this dress up from the Goodwill a week ago. I love the orange silk top and the skirt is really cute with buttons and pockets. I LOVE pockets! I tried it on and there was one issue. As you can see in the image below one side bulges out. And you probably can't see this in the image but the other side pulls to the center slightly. I was about to give up and sadly place it back on the rack when I suddenly had an idea. I could turn this dress into a skirt! The skirt was really what made the dress anyway so I wouldn't miss the top too much despite the fact that I also LOVE silk.

Uneven sides are no bueno.

So I got to cutting. I couldn't just cut the silk off and leave it at that. First it would show at the top no matter how close I tried to cut it. Secondly I needed to fold the zipper over so that the zipper pull wouldn't pull off. So I cut and left about two inches of silk so I could fold it over. This worked out best because there is no silk fray at the waist and the waist is super soft now too.

SNIP!

Then I pinned it down to get it ready to be sewn.

Not the straightest cut but it will do.

Next I sewed it down. Here is the catch- I needed to sew it right on the waist seam or my black thread was going to show. I did my best to sew straight and keep it on the seam but that was tough.

So as you can see below I didn't sew as straight as I should have. Im not that great at sewing straight just yet! I can fix it though- I decided if it bothers me when I wear it I will pick out the thread in this section and re sew just that part.

Ooops- its fixable though!

Next I took the hooks off of the top where the zipper originally stops and hand stitched them to the top of my new skirt.

Im a tad sloppy but you can't see the white thread from the outside.

At least not while wearing it!

I love the way it turned out. SO much better! Maybe I will turn the silk top into a sash or something for another refashion.