DIY Dose: Peasant Dress Updated

Free People Peasant Dress.  Perfect for channeling my inner flower child.

I recently undertook a massive closet clean out (read the details here) and have begun sorting through the wreckage.  The wreckage was anything that didn't make the editorial cut to stay in happy closet land.  I had a bag of donations, which have been dropped off, yay! A bag of items to list on eBay, have not gotten to this yet. Lastly and probably the smallest bag, was items that I wanted to fix.

The first thing that I grabbed from the bag was a Free People peasant style dress.  I purchased it at discount store at a time when peasant dresses were trendy.  This dress is a representation of the valuable fashion lesson that I unfortunately learned the hard way.  Buying trendy clothing, no matter how deeply discounted, is always regrettable (at least in my case).  Looking back this dress looks more like a costume than something that I could get away with wearing everyday.  I could have preserved it as a costume, but the top half had stains that refused to budge.

The reason I saved it was I saw that the dress was not without redeeming qualities.  The bit of lace about the collar was lovely and in great condition.  Also I liked the pattern, color and cut of the skirt, but it was too much combined with the lace top.  So I decided to operate.  I had to be careful not to cut the drawstring waist portion on the bottom half since I planned on keeping it as part of the waistband. I cut about 1/4" above the waistband staying on the white fabric and in a matter of minutes I had freed the skirt from the top!  A pair of scissors, and a quick snip were all it took to complete this project, no sewing skills required. The bottom by itself will make a great summer skirt, light cotton fabric and flowy cut, perfect with a simple tank top or t-shirt.  It can even be used as a coverup over a swimsuit. An easy fix to turn the unwearable into a practical piece of clothing.  I saved the lace portions from the top to use on another project.

The bottom half once freed from the pirate, hippy top half makes a great skirt.