[repurposed] DIY Striped Maxi Skirt

I’ve been coveting a bold striped maxi skirt this season. I even went shopping for one, but it seems the stores are only carrying maxi skirts with diagonal stripes. I was very insistent that the stripes be horizontal. And bold. No wimpy stripes for me!

Then one day just before Fourth of July, while shopping the $1 flip flop sale at Old Navy, I saw several [cheap] tank tops stacked on the tables. The price was so great that I decided I probably needed to refill my dwindling supply of tank tops. But then…. as I fondled the material…. a lightbulb went off in my head.

Maxi skirt!!!!

So, I rummaged for two contrasting colors that would be awesome together. And I bought three tank tops in XL just to make sure I had enough material to work with. The price would be the same whether I got a small or an XXL, so why not get the larger size? It turns out I was spot on in getting the larger size because I needed it to fit around my large a$$.

Here’s how I made the skirt:

And voilà!

I paired the skirt with a navy tank top (also from Old Navy, but in a different style), threw on a long chain necklace and a few baubles with strappy sandals, and I had an instant go-to outfit that was effortless chic! This skirt was so comfortable that I put it on for the mini photo shoot and didn’t take it off for the rest of the day. I love that it’s a T-shirt material – so comfy!

A few other tips I didn’t include in the photo tutorial:

• Use the hem of one tank top as the hem of the skirt. This way you won’t need to do an extra step! (Plus, commercial hemming is way better than anything I could ever do.)
• As I worried about running out of material, I did undo the hem of the pink tank top to get an extra inch.
• Do make sure to iron out all the seams when you’re finished sewing. It’ll help to smooth out all the puckering in the material.
• Since my waist measures smaller than my hips, I had to do extra sewing at the top of my skirt like this:

To determine how to lay out the stripes:

1. I measured the full length of my leg from my waistline to the underside of my ankle bone. (Get someone to help you with this as you won’t be able to get the accurate measurement from your vantage point.)
2. My final length was 35″. As I thought an odd number of stripes would look best, I divided 35 by 5, which yielded 7″ per stripe.
3. I added 1/2″ – 3/4″ to each 7″ band on both sides, with the exception of the top band, which I detailed in the above tutorial, and the bottom band which I only added 1/2″ – 3/4″ to one side.

What do you think? Do you love it? (Please say you do!)

Total time: 2.5 hours from start to finish. Includes sketching and planning time, which only took about 15 minutes.

Total cost: Each tank top was $3.50 with an additional discount for spending over a certain amount (special promotion for the day). As the discount per item was minimal, I’ll just omit the sales tax from the final total to even things out. The elastic band was recycled from another article of clothing, so that didn’t cost anything. I wish I had navy thread on hand, but I didn’t so I used black thread of which I had mass quantities. Final tally was $10.50!! Woohoo! Quite a good price for getting EXACTLY what I want. Yay!

Related Posts:

Tweed Skirt
Infinity Scarves
Turn Scarves Into Boot Socks

Twitter | bloglovin’ | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

Linking To:

52 Mantels
All Things With Purpose
Chic On A Shoestring Decorating
Common Ground
Crafts-A-La-Mode
Crafty Confessions
Daisy Cottage Designs
DIY Show Off
Elizabeth & Co
French Country Cottage
Homecoming
Homework
I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Knick of Time
Lemon Tree Dwelling
Living Well, Spending Less
Made In A Day
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Nifty Thrifty Things
Redfly Creations
Somewhat Simple
Southern Lovely
The Blackberry Vine
The Dedicated House
The Girl Creative
The Shabby Creek Cottage
The Shabby Nest
The Thriftiness Miss
The Thrifty Groove
The Winthrop Chronicles
Thirty Handmade Days
Twigg Studios
Wife In Progress

Posted by Redesigned By M on July 31, 2013

https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/repurposed-diy-striped-maxi-skirt/