Lady bug skirt

Where the heck have I been?  I've moved to a new office at work and have been super busy (and lazy) around the house.....but I'm back now.  I went to the Chantilly Sewing  Expo, spent way too much money and got way to many more ideas to execute.  So here we go.....

I often find loud and fun fabrics for the daughter, guess where?  In the ladies section.  I collect up those crazy color capri pants and convert them to skirts, and other things as you'll see later.  Take this pair, now what grown woman in her right mind would be wearing these pants?  A fun one, I'll grant you that, but come on!

Here is a pair of women's capri pants made into a girls skirt.  Sorry I didn't take the before of the pants but they are your typical capris, slightly stretchy cotton fabric.  This shows them already chopped off right at the length of the crotch.  All I need to do is bring in the waist and finish off the bottom edge.  I could just hem it like it is or fancy it up with a ruffle. I have a seven year old princess, so you can guess the route I'll take.

Here is the proof that they are ladies size......but I never pay attention to size when I buy at the thrift store, I am only buying for the fabric.  To me, the bigger the better.

 Here is where I unstitch and grab that piece of elastic that is always along the back only of womens capri's to give us a little breathing room.  I leave one end stitched down where it is, and pull the other end around encompassing the entire pants waist.  Stitch it down and restitch the waistband.

 I always try to save any predone work in the buttons and zippers area.  So, not in this picture, but just so that you know,  the other end of the elastic is stitched down right next to the button, in black thread so that you can't see it.   And there you have the waist all nice and skinny for a 7 year old.

Now for the ruffle.

I have this ladies dress that I bought just for the fabric.  The huge buttons were a bonus.   I've already chopped off the short sleeves for another project.  

Isn't this fabric the perfect coordinating color?

 I'll save the top part with those cool large buttons for another project, but that bottom is coming off to make the ruffle on the bottom of the skirt.

AND HERE YOU HAVE IT!  How fitting that she has the devil eyes!