Easiest, Quickest, Dress Refashion. Ever.

I found this dress (if you can call it that), at the Goodwill Outlet on my last trip. I was scanning the bins for patterns and fabrics when my eye caught sight of this beauty. The black and white and square polka-dots (polka squares??) was screaming my name. I was pretty sad to see what bad shape it was in. Some previous owner had chopped off the sleeves in a horrendous fashion.

See?? They literally chopped the sleeves right off!!! There were also big brown (coffee?) stains on the skirt and even some blue (crayon?) marks too. So a lost cause right?? Well seeing as I was only paying .79/lb. for stuff at the Outlet, I decided to take it home and see what I could do.

And, guess what? With a little stain remover all of the stains came out of the skirt. I then proceeded to continue the hack job and cut the skirt off of the dress. My plans were to hem it at least at the top….but plans changed when I found the fabric didn’t fray. Why do more work than that? So I left it. I literally spot cleaned it and cut the skirt off of a dress. Voila- the perfect skirt for Spring!

I tried it on over my belly and it mostly stayed up. I could have tightened the elastic in the waistband, but I opted for a belt to hold it up instead. So easy! I got the look I wanted with a little gamble at the thrift store and minimal effort at home. Win-win!

I debated whether this refashion was worth a blog post, but I decided that it is because I hope it gives you a new idea or perspective on thrifting and re purposing clothing. This may be simple, but sometimes it is the simple ideas that make a difference! So when you are out thrifting- don’t put something back because of a few possible problems. If you LOVE something about the item (like the pattern)- take it home and work with it. You’ll be so happy when it pays off! I sure was when I put this outfit together and it worked!!