Skirting the issue

Last year a friend of mine passed on a lovely summery dress that no longer fit her and I happily accepted. After all, it was free and I really liked it. Only it didn’t quite fit me, either, so it just hung in the closet.

The ill-fitting state came because right below the bust line, around the ribs, there is a non-stretchy band of material that is too tight for me. I could suck in my breath and zip it up, but then I couldn’t breathe at all. It was frustrating because every other bit of the dress fit perfectly. (It’s a size UK-8 /USA-4.)

There was no point trying to lose weight because (1) I am thin enough as it is and (2) even if I did drop a few pounds, my rib cage isn’t shrinking!

I looked at the zip on the side of the dress to see if I could add a small spacer, but there just wasn’t a way to make it work.

So, I did what any desperate girl would do: I took it to a seamstress and had it cut in half to make a skirt!*

I’m ever-so-pleased with the results, too. The seamstress took the zip from the top and added it to the bottom then made the waistband elasticised which means that even if I go up to a size 10UK/6USA it will still fit! (I feel like celebrating with a bag of Doritos!)

And now that I have this lovely new skirt, I need to find some cute boy to take me out for a day in the park or something. I mean, it’s much too cute to just wear to work!

* I was going to try to do it myself, but I would have ruined it. Instead, I’m setting myself a goal to learn how to sew a skirt from the start. I don’t expect it to be wearable!