Vintage Skirt Creation- For under $1

So on Wednesday I had a twenty minute window before picking up Lilly where I had just enough time to run into the thrift store. I made a B-Line for the $.99 rack and found this dress.

Pros: I love'd the blue pockets and I can't resists polka dots
Cons: Its ugly. It's six sizes to big, it had shoulder pads!? It would have been super awesome if this were 1984.

I thought, for $.99 it's worth a shot, maybe I can turn it into something awesome (read: awesome in 2012, not to be confused with awesome in 1984)

So I brought it home and cut the top off

(Don't you just love those pockets?!)

Then I flipped it inside out, folded the top down 1/2 inch and sewed it so that it was finished around the top. There was already a zipper but I had to cut it it half when I cut the dress. I removed the remaining portion of the zipper and installed my own (I found a pack of 15 zippers at the thrift store a while back for $1.98 and there was one that matched the blue in the dress perfectly!)

This was my first time installing a zipper and so it was nice for it to already be partially done for me. I just sewed the zipper in where the old zipper was (although I needed to go down a little bit further)

Aren't the colors a perfect match!

At this point the skirt was still about an inch too big for my waist. I simply make one pleat in the center of the front of the skirt and sewed it up, then it fit like a glove. 

I LOVE the way it turned out, I think it's gone from an 80's disaster to vintage retro. And all for under $1!!