1...2...3...Lace Refashion

Last weekend while driving around doing errands, I was intrigued by Goodwill's 50% off furniture sign and decided to stop. I didn't find any furniture but did score this amazing lace dress. I'm not sure if amazing is actually the best word to describe this dress but I knew it had some potential. At $5.99 I just couldn't pass it up, but I wanted to reuse as much as the dress as possible! I was able to get THREE new looks out of it and I must say I am pretty proud of this transformation!
Read below to see the steps I took to complete this refashion. 

I will reuse the zipper for the first skirt so first I unzipped it so it stays attached to the portion I am saving.
Cut off the top bodice and save for later. Cut off the bottom and save for later.

Serge the ends of top and bottom hem

Pen a finished edge and sew

Viola! Skirt one complete.

For the bottom of the original dress I wanted to reuse the scallop edge as the bottom of a new skirt. I also had the lime pencil skirt from a thrift store find and decided it would make a great base for the second skirt. 

Remove the lining of both skirts

The lime skirt had a slit in the back that I no longer needed so I stitched it up.

Cut off the top of the pencil skirt, remove the little zipper piece that was left and stitch up the zipper opening. 

Stuff the lime lining into the lace and pin in place. Cut off the top edge to make it straight and serge the ends.

Pin and sew top edge.

I wanted this to be an elastic waisted skirt so I pinned the elastic in place and started sewing, gently pulling the elastic tight while sewing. I ended up with 4 bands of elastic. 

Add a little ribbon waist tie and skirt two is complete :) This one is my favorite.

Now for reusing the bodice piece. That lace shawl had to go!

I actually used the back of the dress as the front of my bolero. I started by removing the zipper, lining and shawl. 

Then decided a contrasting collar would be a nice touch. Using some scrap yellow linen I had, I made the pieces for the collar. 

1. Pin and cut collar wings x2 and color back

2. Stitch inside out (leaving opening to turn)

3. Turn right side out

4. Sew the 3 pieces together

Pin color in place and stitch on

This dress was a great transformation into 3 new looks!