Dip-dyed skirt into sundress

Sometimes I buy a pretty skirt that is probably more trouble than it is worth.  For example, this one.  If I had just added straps to make it a sun-dress for my daughter, it would have reached the floor.  But I couldn't shorten it without loosing the color change details.  So I decided to use a red serger thread for the trim details and pair it with this piece of fabric to make it a shorter dress for the daughter.  Notice that it is not a perfect skirt anyway, some of the mirrors are coming off (see the bottom left side of the photo).  I am not going to sweat that stuff, she will likely pick some off anyway.

The white dot detailing seems to have been done with a bleach pen....cool.   I have no idea what will become of all that puckering when I wash this.  Oh yeah, another thing about me.  I rarely wash fabrics before I sew them...yes even from the thrift store.  Of course if it is smelly, I wash it first but usually I won't buy it if it is smelly.  I guess I am just gullible enough to assume that people wash their clothes...if doesn't stink, I'm cool with it.  

Now this skirt was clearly handmade...no tag and no professional seams.  And some weird mesh type lining that I assume is to give the fabric some bulk since it is a very thin linen-y fabric.  I decided to leave it  because I think it will help flare out the dress more.  The fabric, not high quality stuff, but very pretty regardless.  I just cut this orange trim off and reattached it with the serger with  a red rolled edge exposed to the outside.

You can even see where they left the ends of the elastic exposed.  No big deal, that whole top foot or so is coming off (saved for later of course....at a minimum I can reuse the elastic).  Once I cut that top part off, I swear this thing was three feet wide!  I just cut a little C shape for each arm hole.  This flimsy fabric and its mesh underlayer was a pain to work with.

I cut piece of bias trim out of the yellow/red fabric to encase the armholes, two tubes to encase elastic for the shoulder pieces and a yoke front and back.  Easy enough right?

And here it is!