Dress to Skirt Refashion (With Invisible Zipper and Lining)

Today's refashion is a dress to skirt, with a zipper and lining. I got this dress way back in 2013 at a consignment shop during their $1 sidewalk sale. (Okay, so four years doesn't seem like a ridiculously long time, but the amount of things that happen and change during such a short timeframe, is insane).  Anyways, this dress was always a bit big on me, but I never really fixed it. Instead, I added in some bust darts and called it a day. Since my sewing skills were lacking back then, I bought this yellow cardigan to cover up my beginner bust darts haha. :) Fast forward four years later, I decided to make this dress into a skirt. This would seem like it would be a simple refashion, because really it's just converting a dress to a skirt. But, it took a little longer because I put in a zipper and the dress was lined.

So, here is what I did:

STEPS:

1. I found a skirt that fit me well to use as my template.

2. I cut out the side zipper to use in my new skirt.

3. I chopped off the bodice of the dress.

It was starting to look like a skirt already!

4. I didn't want the zipper to be on the side of the skirt, so I opened the skirt as shown and...

I unpicked part of the back seam, just enough to fit my zipper in.

5. Next, I sewed my zipper in, as shown.

Here's how I pinned it.

Basically, I sandwiched the zipper in between the right sides of the fabrics. 

(The lining and the main fabric)

Here is how it looked after I had sewn in one side of the zipper.

6. Now, I had to take care of the lining. Since the lining was attached to the hem of the skirt, as shown, I had to cut alongside the seam to separate the lining from the main fabric.

After I was done cutting, it looked like this:

7. The next step was to hem the lining.

Lining was hemmed!

8. After, I sewed the lining together at the side seam. (Right sides of the fabric touching, wrong sides out)

9. Also, I sewed the main fabric together at the side seam. (Once again, right sides in, wrong sides out.)

10. I turned both pieces inside out, and this is what it looked like:

11. Finally, it was time to sew on a new waistband. 

12. After I cut it out, I put in some interfacing to make my waistband stabler.

13. I pinned the waistband to the skirt as shown. 

(The right side of the waistband touching the inside of the skirt)

To leave a clean edge, I folded in the edge of the waistband in.

After I sewed it, I folded the waistband up...

...and then folded the edge down...

...and finally folded it down again, and topstitched.

TA DA!