Maxi Dress to Maxi Skirt Refashion

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I had an incredibly stressful weekend. The only good thing that evolved from the dark depths of despair: today is Branson's first day of college! Please excuse me while I run around our apartment complex screaming with joy. Don't worry, the screaming will only last a moment because it's 12 degrees outside. You have to draw the line somewhere.

So...I had free time today. Which means I put my sewing machine to good use. 

I had this maxi dress below. It was cute, but I just got a little tired of how it hit me above my ankles. When you're almost 6 feet tall, having things hit your shins makes you look awkward. At least, it does to me. 

I decided I was going to keep the elastic in the dress already. So I turned the dress inside out as so. 

Then I went ahead and cut above the elastic, about an inch. 

After I cut the top from the bottom, I went ahead and rolled the edge over, and pinned it to the elastic. 

I used a zig-zag stitch, and sewed the fabric to the elastic. Now, I did this because I didn't want it to be too tight of elastic. When I sewed the fabric to my elastic, it stretched out the elastic. There is still enough to give it the hold I desired in the first place, but I did end up having to take in the skirt almost 2 inches because the stretch was more than I expected. A little extra work never killed anyone, am I right?

My new skirt seemed to be lacking something. So right above the skirt hem I added just a little row of cream lace. 

Now I have a skirt that covers my feet! Which, in Utah in the winter, that's a blessing!