Prevailing Pink: Dress to Skirt Refashion

The tones of gray, pale turquoise and pink will prevail. – Christian Dior

A couple of years ago I decided that I needed to inject more color into my wardrobe. A few colors were conspicuously missing, one of them was pink.Christian Dior had a lot to say about color, dresses and fashion … like the quote above. I was given a cute color block dress that incorporated two of the three “prevailing” colors: Pink (a lot of it) and gray. It also features some black which doesn’t have to prevail apparently as a timeless color.

The dress was adorable, but I found I wasn’t wearing it much, opting instead for slightly longer dresses or ones with straps that didn’t feel like they needed pulled up constantly and would make me feel more comfortable overall. Like with anything in my closet that sits unworn for long periods of time, I considered if I want to eliminate it from my wardrobe or simply change it.

This dress had fantastic pockets. A rare find in female fashions. I determined that I would change it into a skirt in a few very minor adjustments.

First, I picked apart the seams holding the bodice to the empire waistband.

Then I freed the zipper from the top part and set it aside. At that point, I basically had my skirt!

I didn’t want to replace the zipper so I just folded it down and stitched the new top seam of my skirt, all the way around, over the zipper as well, effectively shortening it.

I snipped off the extra zipper ends and reattached the hook and eye at the new top of the zipper. The dress had an apron tie in the back and I considered removing it, but for now I’ve opted to keep it. I think it makes the skirt a little more fun.

Finally, I ironed everything.

I opted to wear my new skirt to work since it was now an office appropriate length. I wore it with a basic black scoop neck tee and sandals. How would you style a skirt like this?