Sew: Too Small to Perfect Fit Vintage Skirt Refashion Tutorial

I bought this lovely velvety, cord, floral, vintage skirt in a local op shop. It was love a first sight but the skirt is five, maybe six sizes too small (modeled here by Mummy Ask. The skirt is about two or three sizes too small for her) . But it was long and A line and I thought I could make it work. I threw it my UFO box and kinda forgot about it until I saw a discussion about Jillian of Refashionista fame.

If you aren’t familiar with the Refashionista and her blog, back in 2010 Jillian started a blog detailing her thrift store refashions. I’ve been reading her blog for years and I enjoy it. The recent Reddit thread about Refashionista had a bit of debate about Jillian’s use of larger size clothing, which she makes smaller to fit her. Some felt that larger size second hand clothing is a precious resource (and it is!) and others felt that thrifting is first come, first served (absolutely!). My comment was that I can’t employ most of Jillian’s techniques because it’s hard to find things that are too big for me and that I’d like to create some upsize refashions. A couple of Redditors were keen to see that, so I dug out my too small vintage skirt!

Before I get to the how to, I just wanted to add that I’ve discussed the lack of plus size vintage clothing with many, many people. The going theory is that there were probably less plus size people but also that in previous eras more thrift and more sewing led to larger garments being refashioned into smaller garments. So none of this is new.

As the fabric of the skirt is quite thick and there were no darts to begin with, I didn’t want to add darts. I also didn’t want the same style of waistband. I’m never too fussed about waistbands because I rarely tuck anything in, it just doesn’t suit me. There had to be some shaping (even without darts) so I grabbed my Bread & Butter Skirt pattern. This pattern is a A line skirt with the dart rotated out, the post on in has tutorial links on how to draft this. It’s very quick and easy!

Sew: Too Small to Perfect Fit Vintage Skirt Refashion Tutorial

First I unpicked the zip for later. Then I found the section of the vintage skirt where I could fit my hips nicely and laid my existing skirt on top. Once everything was aligned, I chalked out the waist and hip alterations and smoothed out the shapes.

Then I sewed side seams and chopped the waist. Time to get that lovely vintage zip back in and use bias tape to face the waist band. In the spirit of ‘make do & mend’ I used this aqua bias as contrast because it was in my stash. The thread doesn’t quite match for the same reason, which is fine beause only me (and all of you), will see it lol! If you need some help with the zipper, I like this method and if you need a hand with bias, this post has all the info!

And ta da! A new vintage skirt! If this skirt had fitted, I would have chopped it into a shorter skirt for wearing with tights or leggings in the cooler weather. I just went the other way around! I think I might have to turn the leftovers into a bag, a la Juanita Tortilla or save for her next time I see her. I think this refashion could work for so many skirts out there and it has the bonus of no hemming! I hope my Redditors and Jillian from Refahionista like this refashion, there will be others! I have a summer dress project I’ve started but lost the passion for when the weather turned cold. Here’s cheers to refashioning & repurposing at any size!