A skirt beyond repair...or is it?

Well, actually, yes. This skirt was wearing thin, thread unravelling (I would trip on it when walking), and full of holes. But, I liked it.

I knew I couldn't turn this into something fit to sell at markets, or even give away to friends, but I decided to resurrect it into something I could wear (until it fell apart completely).

My method: in short, cut out all the bad bits and sew back together!

The crochet/knit bands were looking a little faded, so I decided to cut these away.

Whereever I found a hole, I gathered the section around the hole to form a vertical seam, effectively making the skirt smaller every time I did this.

Instead of sewing the pieces directly back together, I chose to sew them back into the lining to create a layering effect. I simply serged the bottom and top of each section to keep them from fraying.

The existing lining was extremely worn out and never going to allow for this, so I had to replace it...I used old pillowcases for this!

And finally, some of the gold/beige thread had come off the embroidered section of the middle piece, and it really looked out of place, so I had a go at sewing over it with the foot taken off my sewing machine. I didn't do a brilliant job, if you look closely, but it no longer looks out of place (in case you can't tell immediately, the top one is original, the bottom my effort).

I also changed the drawstring and added some elastic to the waistband.

And here it is!

I'm hoping that with it being shorter, it will be less likely to get damaged by me standing on it or dragging it along the ground.