DIY - Charity Shop Shirt to Collar and Skirt - Part 2 - The Skirt

Turning the shirt into a skirt is a little bit harder than just doing the collar! And it also takes a little longer but its still fairly easy! :) For Part 1 - How to DIY the collar check out the previous post here :)

So you've now got a collarless shirt, you need to measure from your waist down to where on your leg you want the skirt to end. Add about 5 cm to this number to account for the waistband and hem. Then lay your shirt down on a flat surface and measure from the bottom of the skirt the length that you just got. Get some lovely big sharp scissors and make sure you cut a straight line across. I used a sleeveless shirt for this so I didn't need to cut the sleeves off. If you have sleeves on the shirt, just chop them off, it doesn't have to be that neat, just straight.

Next you need to pin the rest of the shirt up the front, where it should button up. Try to keep it as straight and as neat as possible.

Then you need to measure the length of your elastic, mine was 2 cm. Measure about 5 cm down from the top of your shirt and mark it with a pen or a piece of chalk all the way around. You also need to cut the across the top with pinking shears to stop it from fraying. If you don't have any of these scissors, just stitch a straight line across the top, about 5 mm to the edge.

 Pin it down so that the edge meets up with the marked line, you're essentially folding it in half.

Sew a straight line across about 5 mm away from the edge, making sure you take out your pins!

 

Now you should have a kind of loop going all the way around the top of your skirt. Take your elastic and cut it to the length of the circumference of your waist. Then put a safety pin through one end of the elastic and start to thread it through the gap you just made. Make sure you don't pull it all the way through, use a pin to secure it to one end.

 Take the safety pin and any other pins out and sew your elastic together. The skirt should be slightly scrunched at the waistband.

Next, you need to sew up the sleeves, this completes the side seams. Pin the edges of the gaps together (where the sleeves would have been).

Then you just need to sew a straight stitch up the side seam and over the elastic waistband.

And VOILA! You have a bright printed skirt! :)

This is how I styled it, using the matching collar as an accessory :) Happy DIYing!