Skirt Transformation Tutorial

Remember that adorable skirt that I found at such a discount, I bought 2 of them?  I mentioned that I ended up turning the second skirt into something special.  Well here it is.  The adorable birthday girl who was to receive the skirt in the first place said that she wanted cloths for her American Girl doll, so I transformed one discount skirt into 2 doll dresses (one for a gift and one for Lydia).

Here is the entire birthday package.  The big girl skirt and the doll dress.  I had some extra fabric from the waistband so I went ahead and made a headband for both the real girl and the American girl doll, too.

 Here is how I did it.  I cut the skirt in half, one for each dress.  Then I cut the side seam out of each half, so I had 4 rectangles,to become fronts and backs of 2 dresses.  I re-sewed a side seam connecting the front and the back, stopping before I got all the way to the top.  This opening will become the arm hole.  I decided where to place it by simply holding it up to Lydia's American Girl doll. I then sewed the same way on the other side of the dress, so I had a complete circle dress with openings for the arms on both sides.

 The top of the front and the back was then folded over and sewn, creating a pocket to slide a ribbon through.  I used a paper clip to pull the ribbon through the tunnel.  I then sewed the big opening on each end so that it would be a little more narrow.  Not actually closing off the opening or sewing down the ribbon, but making it less open so that the ribbon wouldn't slip into the dress by accident.  I also tied beads to the end of the ribbon to be certain it couldn't get sucked up into the tunnel when Lydia pulled on it.

 Gather the ribbon and you have a basic pillow case type dress, for an American Girl doll..... made out of a skirt....bought at huge discount.......making me and 2 little girls very happy!