. . . how I wore it 
. . . it’s a cute dress BUT . . .
1. It’s too short. I can only wear it with flats. 2. The top doesn’t stay up.
I altered this caftan/maxi dress below because it was too short as well {flats only} and makes for a much better skirt than dress. However, this one had an elastic empire-ish waistband so I just snipped off the top section and called it a day. Easy!
* Cut off the top {if there is an elastic waist band, carefully cut right above it and you’re done …unless you’d like to hem it under to finish it.
* Fold under the top of your “skirt” creating a channel large enough for whatever “string” you’ll be using to cinch it. You may also use elastic if you’d prefer …and pin in place. If you’d like to get pro about it, you can do a proper hem, but since this is a stretch jersey, and no one is going to be examining mine, I’m leaving mine with raw edges.
* If I had a Serger, I’d use that but since I don’t, I just hand-stitched {a very messy, I may add} loose, base-stitch all the way around …and then around again to secure it. Keep the stitches nice and loose so as to not break the thread when pulling your skirt on and off.
* Find the center of your skirt and snip a little slit in the front. Again, since my skirt is jersey, I’m not worried about finishing this up nicely …it will stay in tact. Safety pin the end of your rope or ribbon and slide it through.
…you have a skirt
DIYing an old maxi dress into a maxi skirt gives life to an old dress you may never wear again …and it’s really simple given it’s already in the shape of a skirt. You may want to keep this in mind while vintage shopping as well …if a dress is too small on top but has a great lower half, it could be your new favorite skirt!
Have Fun!
* This Little was No Help At All! *
