Over the past couple of years I have purchased a PILE of skirts, which were mostly broomstick and other long ones, from various thrift stores. But, I'm always disappointed in the fullness or length of these skirts. If you haven't read previously, I'm attempting tribal-style bellydancing. And, I love the floor-length flowing skirts that traditional ATS dancers wear. So, I decided to reconstruct a couple of my shorter cotton skirts in to one fuller dance skirt.
I started by taking apart a tan printed skirt between the middle tiers that repeated and sewed them together into one long piece. Then, I sewed that to the third tier of an all black skirt. The leftover fabric tiers I removed from the black skirt were then sewn together and added to the bottom. It worked quite nicely. And, this way I could minimize the sewing and take advantage of the existing waistband. It was convenient that all the tiers were about the same width. The only complaint I had with my new skirt was the tightness of the top tiers. But, once I tried it on, I like that it is not bulky at the waist with excess gathers. I can add scarves, belts and other accessories to build up my hips.
In all, it took me two days from start to finish for this skirt. And, that is only because I took care to rip the seams carefully to conserve the width of fabric. This would be a great way to reuse those sentimental items that don't fit anymore. I frequently buy skirts and tops in excessively larger sizes and take in the waist and other areas. I'm an average size, and it seems all the good stuff that would fit me are always taken. :)
I would like to add some faux shisha mirrors and other embellishments to this skirt, later. Hope that won't weigh it down too much. It's a nice weight at the moment and flows beautifully.
I have future plans to make a choli top out of the bottom edge of yet another skirt:
I just loved the embroidery on this one. Should be ample there to make the top, which I'm going to create off of an existing top I own that fits me. I may try to line it with the leftover linen fabric from the top portion, but it may be too thick to be comfortable doing that.
***UPDATE 03/30/10***
Just adding an action pic we took while I was playing around with accessories.
Happy crafting!