DIY: Floral dress

This floral dress is perfect for romping around in warmer weather and is a total transformation from the long prairie skirt that it started out as.  This IS a DIY but requires some basic sewing skills (a sewing machine was super helpful for speeding up the process).  I also don't have any images of the transformation, so keep your eyes here in the next few weeks and I'm sure to make another one and post the images!

1. Start out with a long mid- or high-waisted skirt that fits you well.  The longer the skirt when you begin, the more fabric you'll have to work with later.
2. Turn the skirt inside out and mark the length you want it
3. Cut an inch below your line, and hem the skirt up to your desired length.  You should be left with a whole bunch of leftover fabric, hold onto it... it will become the top!
4. Now I didn't want to deal with adding stretch or a zipper at the top of the dress, so mine drops all the way down to the top of the skirt's zipper in the back.  It makes it easier to get on and off... but requires me to have the halter top because I could't get it to stay up as a strapless.
5. you want to measure all the way around your waist, this distance is the length of the bottom of the top piece.  (this measurement is the length you want AFTER you finish all the edges, so cut it big!)
6. Then you want to measure the distance from the top of the skirt to where you want the top of the dress to hit.  Finally, you want to measure the distance across the front of your chest, this is how wide the top part of the dress will be before it drops down to the skirt at the back.

7. Mark these three measurements on your fabric with the waist measure at the bottom, the height measurement going up from the middle, and the chest width market at the top of the height measure.  You will have 2 more lines that go from the ends of the chest measure to the ends of the waist measure.  You will end up with a shape that looks like a long Trapezoid.
8. Cut out your trapezoid with 1 inch margins outside the lines.  Sew the top edges down like you would a hem.  Sew the bottom to the skirt top, right sides together.
9.  I added buttons to the front of mine, and rushed the front to make a kind of "sweetheart" top.  You can sew on any kind of ribbon or chord to make a halter if yours falls down in front like mine did.

Illustrations or a second demo will soon follow!!!  Send me pics if you make one :)