Skirt / Shirt Refashion

I have a closet full of skirts, tops, and pants which are too small for me.  I have been hoping to lose the extra weight from my last pregnancy which was all most a year ago but I am coming to the realization that my "muffin top" is here to stay.  Partly because I can't find the time to exercise. But that means I have plenty of cloths to refashion.

This shirt can be worn as a skirt or a top.  If you want to wear it as a skirt you can leave it buttoned and it looks like a bubble skirt or you can unbutton it and it is a fun, flirty skirt. It is up to you.

                                  I took this skirt which was to small and cut it off right under the zipper.

There were to layers of fabric so I sewed them together at the top of the skirt.

Then I took some 4" elastic measured it snugly around my chest, cut and sewed it together.

I then pinned the elastic to the top of the skirt.  First centering it by pinning it directly in the middle flipping the skirt over and pining the elastic to the middle of the other side. I continued pinning the elastic around the skirt in the same manner.  This way when I pull the elastic tight it will stretch to the length of the fabric.  This will cause a nice gathering effect around the waist of the skirt.

When you sew the elastic on you must pull the elastic so it stretches until it is flush with the fabric.  You will need to hold the elastic behind the sewing machine and gently pull from behind as you sew.

Above is a picture of the elastic pulled tight, below is a picture of the elastic left loose.

Now that you are done sewing the elastic on you can were it as a skirt. But I wanted to play around and make it a shirt.

Try it on and pull all the loos fabric in front and make a large pleat.

This is a picture of the finished shirt but I show it so you can get an idea of how the pleat should look. 

While the shirt is on pin and mark the corners at the end of the pleat. This is where button holes and a button will go. You will need two button holes, side by side.  These will be in the front of the shirt.   Then you will need to mark the place of the button hole. These will go about on the sides of the shirt. You can see below how the button holes and buttons will go.

Lastly, you have to button the buttons and put it on.