A skirt into a dress

A lot of you  lovely ladies have been posting skirt-to-dress refashions lately. It's a classic, and here's my version. I started with this maxi skirt that overwhelmed my 5'2" body a bit. The "polka dots" are really small bulls-eyes, like the Target logo. 

I removed the elastic from the front part of the waistband and tightened up the back elastic a bit.

I marked a line with pins straight across the front of the skirt where my new waistline would be, then stitched the top layer to the lining all the way across.

Just below my new seam, on one side seam of the skirt, I stitched down the end of a short length of elastic, maybe 6 inches long. Then I stitched the other end of the elastic to the other side seam of the skirt so that it brought the two sides together on the front of the skirt just below the seam I made. Finally, I stretched the elastic out so I could sew another seam just below it, encasing the elastic. When I finished, it looked like this.

I didn't trust the top to stay up on its own, so I made a strap from a length of ribbon I had on hand. I folded the middle section in half and stitched it together, then made it into a V in the center.

Finally, I added the strap to the front of my new dress. Here's how it looks.

And from the back...

Hopefully, the black won't be too hot for summer. Thanks for reading!

-Amy