1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,630 There is a box, in the corner of my sewing room. 2 00:00:03,630 --> 00:00:07,410 It is a box whose contents have not seen the light of day for many a month. 3 00:00:07,410 --> 00:00:11,909 Many crafters will be familiar with this box, in all of its forms: There’s the ever-growing 4 00:00:11,909 --> 00:00:14,579 amorphous lump that lies underneath your desk… 5 00:00:14,579 --> 00:00:16,760 The monster underneath your bed… 6 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,230 The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization and stuffed into your garage in the hopes 7 00:00:20,230 --> 00:00:22,120 that you’d never have to deal with it again… 8 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:25,800 This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING PILE. 9 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:37,499 So the item that I pulled out of the Style Pile box today was… 10 00:00:37,499 --> 00:00:42,269 Lol, joke, this second pile over here is the REST of the Style Pile, an extension of the 11 00:00:42,269 --> 00:00:44,829 box that’s flowed out into the corner of my studio. 12 00:00:44,829 --> 00:00:49,329 Anyway, the item that I pulled out of the depths of this mess is… this dress! 13 00:00:49,329 --> 00:00:54,109 This dress is originally from a store called Mod Dolly from about 2012, HOWEVER I don’t 14 00:00:54,109 --> 00:00:58,639 really wear short dresses right now, they’re a little bit too cutesy for me – so, I thought 15 00:00:58,639 --> 00:01:00,739 that I would turn this dress into a ROMPER! 16 00:01:00,739 --> 00:01:04,760 By the way, thank you to all of the people who suggested that I do this DIY! 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,050 And just so you all know I have an older video on doing exact the opposite, which is turning 18 00:01:09,050 --> 00:01:10,800 a jumpsuit into a dress. 19 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,470 ANYWAY back to the project at hand, you need to cut your dress to the length that you want 20 00:01:14,470 --> 00:01:15,980 your romper to be FIRST. 21 00:01:15,980 --> 00:01:19,160 My dress didn’t need any cutting because it’s already short enough and I wanted the 22 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:23,170 romper to be about this length, but if you have a longer dress and you want to make it 23 00:01:23,170 --> 00:01:27,890 in a shorter romper, then cut it to the desired length with a pair of scissors FIRST. 24 00:01:27,890 --> 00:01:31,860 Next I turned my dress inside out and I laid it down flat so that the front of the dress 25 00:01:31,860 --> 00:01:33,140 was facing up. 26 00:01:33,140 --> 00:01:37,880 Then I folded the dress in half, down the middle of the front, like this, making sure 27 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,740 that that side seams of the dress matched up here, and that THIS fold was EXACTLY at 28 00:01:42,740 --> 00:01:44,300 the centre front of the dress. 29 00:01:44,300 --> 00:01:49,630 Next, I put pins into the centre-front fold to make sure all 4 layers of fabric - the 30 00:01:49,630 --> 00:01:52,229 front and the back of the dress - were going to stay in the same place. 31 00:01:52,229 --> 00:01:57,020 Then, I drew a little curved line like this onto the inside of the fabric, that was about 32 00:01:57,020 --> 00:01:59,500 1 and a half inches high and ¾ of an inch wide, 33 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,540 and then I cut on this line through all 4 layers of fabric. 34 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,860 Then I unfolded the dress and I ended up with this. 35 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:12,420 The next thing I did was to simply sew along this new “crotch” part like this. 36 00:02:12,420 --> 00:02:17,540 I used a straight stitch and I sewed along the seam twice for extra reinforcement around 37 00:02:17,540 --> 00:02:19,000 the crotch. 38 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,120 I finished off the seam by clipping the raw edge with a pair of pinking shears to prevent 39 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:26,060 fraying, you could also serge this seam to finish it off neatly OR you can just leave 40 00:02:26,060 --> 00:02:27,340 it as it is. 41 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:32,280 Now, this is the basic romper DONE but you’ll notice that if you leave it here, and depending 42 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,620 on the fabric and width of your original skirt, you’ll probably get a lot of “bunching” 43 00:02:36,620 --> 00:02:39,340 at the crotch area… which doesn’t look so good. 44 00:02:39,340 --> 00:02:43,420 SO, to get rid of that, I folded my new romper back into this position. 45 00:02:43,420 --> 00:02:48,370 Then, I grabbed a pair of slightly loose-fitting shorts that I already owned, and I folded 46 00:02:48,370 --> 00:02:51,600 them in half the same way I did for the dress, so that they looked like this. 47 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,880 I then placed the shorts on top of the romper, matching up the crotch seams. 48 00:02:55,880 --> 00:03:00,710 You can see that the front panel of the pair of shorts goes inwards like this, which reduces 49 00:03:00,710 --> 00:03:05,900 the “crotchal-bulk” (that’s not a term) – anyway I traced this shape onto my own 50 00:03:05,900 --> 00:03:11,320 romper using a fabric pen. The pen is kinda hard to see on the video but the line is HERE. 51 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:15,520 Next, I pulled the back of the romper away from the front – because I only want to 52 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:19,560 sew through 2 layers of fabric here, through the FRONT of the romper only. 53 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,320 And then, I sewed straight up this line using a straight stitch. 54 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:27,849 To finish this seam off, and get rid of that extra fabric at the crotch, I cut away the 55 00:03:27,849 --> 00:03:32,100 excess fabric from the seam using some pinking shears so that the fabric wouldn’t fray. 56 00:03:32,100 --> 00:03:35,660 Now, you’ll also notice that when I placed the shorts onto the romper, the bottoms of 57 00:03:35,660 --> 00:03:38,840 the shorts curved upwards away from the crotch like this. 58 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,360 So if you don’t do this next step, your romper’s shorts will curve down from the 59 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:43,600 crotch like this. 60 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,819 What I want to do is make the legholes more “straight” across my legs. So to do this, 61 00:03:47,819 --> 00:03:52,270 I traced around the bottom of the pair of shorts, adding about 1 inch hemming allowance, 62 00:03:52,270 --> 00:03:57,340 and then I cut along this line through ALL 4 layers of fabric – so through both the 63 00:03:57,340 --> 00:03:58,430 front and the back of the romper. 64 00:03:58,430 --> 00:04:02,230 I unfolded this and then I serged around the bottom of both leg holes – this step is 65 00:04:02,230 --> 00:04:06,319 optional, it just stops fraying, you can also cut it with pinking shears – and then, with 66 00:04:06,319 --> 00:04:10,170 the romper still inside-out, I made a hem around the leg holes by folding the fabric 67 00:04:10,170 --> 00:04:14,290 up, about a half an inch, like this, and sewing all the way around the leg. 68 00:04:16,250 --> 00:04:17,770 AND…. 69 00:04:18,500 --> 00:04:20,040 This is my finished romper! 70 00:04:20,050 --> 00:04:22,050 [Music plays] 71 00:04:22,190 --> 00:04:26,270 It worked out so well and it looks fantastic – I love it! 72 00:04:26,340 --> 00:04:28,580 Here are the before and the afters! 73 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,840 NOW, before I go, it’s worth mentioning that you can only use this method on a dress 74 00:04:35,850 --> 00:04:41,590 that you can pull up over your hips and waist – so on a dress that has a zipper or buttons 75 00:04:41,590 --> 00:04:43,410 or a tie-up front like mine. 76 00:04:43,410 --> 00:04:47,080 But next episode, I’ll be showing you how you can use this method on a dress that you 77 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:50,560 pull on over your head, so... a dress without zippers [or other ways to get it on]. 78 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:54,120 I hope you guys are having a great week, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you all next 79 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:55,350 time. Bye! 80 00:04:55,350 --> 00:04:59,840 Thank to all of my supporters on Patreon for making these videos possible! To become my 81 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:01,740 Patreon supporter, go to patreon.com/annikavictoria.