Upcycled skirt

In one of my recent decluttering missions I found an old skirt (adult sized) in my craft closet. I got it (used) from a friend to whom it didn't fit anymore, but because it was a nice soft pink linen fabric, I decided to keep it.

It was way too long for me and at the time (I can't remember exactly when but it must have been over a year ago) I debated several alternatives to make it shorter. The easiest way would be to use the existing waist (which was just the right size) and just cut the excess length and make a new hem.  But the original hem was cute, with a heart shaped pattern I didn't want to loose since it was the eye catcher in an otherwise plain skirt.

I put the skirt away for a while to think about what I wanted to do with it, then days turned into months and it never came out of the closet again.

Well, lately my daughter (now four and a half) has been a lot into skirts, and with spring in full force and summer just around the corner, it seems it's just the right time to wear them. The ones she has from last year are now way too short, and even though some can be lengthened (see my tutorial on how to lengthen girl's skirts here), she needed a couple of new ones. So, why not make them?

Thus, the skirt that should have been for me (though I didn't really need it and rarely use skirts anyway) ended up being turned into a skirt for her. And I did get to save the original hem!

Basically, I measured the height using one skirt that fits her well now and cut the fabric leaving enough room for a new elastic casing.

Then, and that was left to do was to sew said elastic casing, insert the elastic and close the opening.

But, me being me, I couldn't pass the opportunity to embellish the skirt a little . So I added an iron-on bunny patch (which I already had in my stash, so it counts as decluttering as well):

My daughter now calls it the bunny skirt...

Even without the iron-on, this is a very good example of how sometimes looking at things in a different light allows us to find their true destination. I turned a skirt that was just cluttering my closet into a perfectly functional skirt for my daughter in something like 10 minutes. I'd say its win-win all the way!

And I still have left the rest of the original skirt (the top half), that now looks like this...

...and I have plans to upcycle it as well. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple of weeks (hopefully).

So, what else do you have in your closet that could be upcycled?


Enjoy,