A Tutorial on Modifying an Adult's Skirt to a Child's Skirt
The outfits required for the children's Latin choir performances are strictly defined. The girls are to wear a navy blue skirt below the knees, a white buttoned blouse (short or long sleeves), black shoes (without decoration), and simple, if any, jewelry.
Long navy skirts are hard enough to find for older girls, but there are some manufacturers who make them for just this kind of uniform-requiring event. But the need for really young girls to have such a skirt is small and, like last year, I couldn't find a skirt.
Last year, I bought an old navy blue table cloth at Goodwill and sewed Mary a circle skirt, which turned out not only to be serviceable for the concert but was her favorite skirt all year until she wore it to nubs!
This year, I searched two consignment stores and Goodwill for a child's skirt. Hannah Lise offers wonderful and modest clothing for young girls, but the smallest girl's size long, navy skirt (reasonably priced at $23) was too narrow in the waist and significantly too long. Land's End carries a suitable skirt, but I was loathe to pay $40 for a skirt that might be worn only twice.
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| Size 5T girl holding up her ladies' size 8 skirt |
I was about to sew a skirt from scratch when I decided to peruse the ladies' skirts at Goodwill, where I found a size 8 navy blue skirt. For a mere four dollars, I was willing to try modifying it for a child!
I measured carefully because this skirt had a fitted waist (with button and zipper), not a forgiving elastic waist with which I am familiar. I had to reduce a 29" waist to a 22" waist. (Meanwhile, I mused on how I used to wear a skirt size even smaller than 29" before having four children!)
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| Cutting the sides more narrow |
The skirt was lined: I decided not to sew the lining separately and the skirt separately, but to be imperfect and simply sew the two together at the side seams.
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| Shortening the skirt |
I used a serger to sew the sides, then I used my machine to reinforce the waistband with navy blue thread to make sure those points of most stress wouldn't pull loose and reveal my serger thread. Then I cut the skirt shorter.
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| She is so happy with her concert outfit! |
The skirt was a perfect fit and paired well with the darling blouse with a Peter Pan ruffled collar I also found at Goodwill.
Total cost for this outfit: $7 at Goodwill plus some thread and half an hour of my sewing time.
Wow! SO cute! You are really good at this, mrs. Lauer! :) -Emiliann W.
ReplyDeleteIt looks so great, and my favorite part is that you kept the button & side zip intact making it a real grown up style skirt for her!
ReplyDeleteI have been meaning to do something similar for my older girls as it's quite a chore to find anything suitable once you get out of the child ranges into preteen / junior items. It's the only thing that forces me to sew, these days, and the worst part is that I just made the oldest 2 eight dresses a few months ago (april or may) which they have already outgrown! They put on simply INCHES this summer.
Sarah: Thanks! What a disappointment to make eight dresses and have them grown out within months.
ReplyDeleteYes, over here I do a lot of buying sizes way up and modifying the waistbands to make them decent for little girls. I don't know how well that will keep working with older children as there is less room for clothes to be baggy and swishy and still be fashionable. But it seems like a method with possibilities, especially with searching for clothing at the thrift stores.
The skirt came out great! What a great Goodwill find!
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