DIY Upcycled Adult Skirt to Child’s Kimono Tutorial

Happy Hump Day Guys!

So last week I went to Goodwill to drop off some stuff the kids no longer use and I decided to go inside to see if I could find anything interesting. I’m glad I did because I came across this gorgeous adult skirt covered in detailed embroidery with beaded trim on the hem. I instantly envisioned a kimono for Abigail and I knew I had to get it!

The skirt had a lining so I spent the better half of my removing the trim at the hem and ripping out seams. When I was finished, I was left with 3 rectangular pieces. Initially I wanted to make more of a jacket style Kimono with long sleeves, but upon closer inspection of the skirt there was rips and tears on a better half of the top parts that I couldn’t use. So I decided to go with the laziest, easiest way to make a kimono with the pieces that I could use.(haha)

**** When I started this project I didn’t intend for this to be a tutorial, so I’m short of some step by step pictures, BUT I’ve managed to make some illustrations with the pictures I do have so I hope they make sense. 

HERE’S WHAT I DID:

STEP 1: The idea here is to have a nice rectangular piece of fabric to work with. I wanted to keep the original hem and the split open that was on the back of the skirt because it was already so nicely creased so I decided to use that as the front of the kimono. I laid the pieces over each other and lined up the bottom embroidered border with each other and clipped (pin) those in place.

STEP 2: I measured how long I wanted the kimono (a 1/2 inch seam allowance included) and marked a line across the top.  (For example my length was 15 inches and I added 1/2 an inch to allocate for the seam allowance; so I measured and marked a line 15.5 inches long). Then with a small plate (or anything circular) I created a small half circle starting from the line I just marked. This will be the neck opening. After you’ve made your top and neck mark….cut along these lines.

STEP 3: Then take your pieces to the sewing machine. WITH RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER, and sew a seam straight across the top, and along each side of your side seams. I left about a 6 inch wide arm opening but you can decide how wide you want to leave your arm opening here. (sidenote: My pieces are wrongs sides together because I did french seams)

STEP 4: Press the seams you just made.

STEP 5: Install bias tape facing around neck opening. Here’s a great tutorial that teaches you how to do that: Using Bias Tape as Facing.

STEP 5: Hem sleeves. Turn sleeves up 1/4 inch press and then hem.

STEP 7: Press the bottom hem of the kimono up 1/4 of an inch and sew on trim. AND WALLAH! You are done!

Now for action pics! She’s such a ham! lol

So super cute right?! It’s a really quick sew too, I think I probably did it all under an hour! That’s it for today guys, thank you for stopping by, thank you you soon!! xoxo