Simple Skirt Alteration: Front Button Up Skirt Refashion

I can't believe we are already halfway through June! I've been working on several projects, but some haven't been going according to plan and I needed a simple project to cleanse my sewing palette.

I found this skirt on Poshmark two or three weeks ago. I was just buying a top but before checking out from the closet, I saw this skirt and fell in love! It's by Emily & Fin and the listing said it was from Modcloth, but I also found it sold through Anthropologie. It has a really cute California inspired print with images of the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, Wine Country, and cacti and palm trees. Best of all- it has pockets! After getting the skirt and trying it on, I realized I wasn't a huge fan of how it laid on my lower half. It felt a little blah. I really loved the print and colors and wanted to make this work for my wardrobe.

I was imagining putting a slit in the side or the front when I thought about adding an entire button front. This would allow me to add some detail and let me have a leg opening!

The original plan was to cut right down the center front of the skirt, but this skirt already had a seam, it was just in the back! Want to do a similar alteration? I've documented the steps below!

This alteration will work well with skirts that are gathered or has pleats, and works best with a back (or front) zipper. This skirt had pleats so I was able to remove two to give me more material. You can certainly add extra material to make a button front as well. Another tip for wanting to DIY this look, you may need extra material for your waistband. My skirt was originally meant to sit down towards the hips, but I fit it to my natural waist and was able to tighten it just a little bit.

Step one is to remove the back zipper, and seam rip the back seam.

Step two is to remove a pleat on each side, or remove gathering. This step definitely depends on the style of your skirt. If you have gathering, you may want to consider removing the waistband and redistributing all gathering, but this is totally optional!

Step three, open the stitching on your waistband. Re-stitch waistband ends with right sides together to create clean ends. The bottom of the waistband remains open to re-insert the skirt.

Step four, mark where the skirt lines up with the edge of the waistband and measure. This will be the fold point for the button front. My fold measured 1.5". I marked this measurement on both sides of the skirt opening, and folded them in. Interface this folded section with lightweight fusible interfacing. I folded in the serged edge of each side, folded again to finish the button front and top stitch closed.

Step 5, baste mark the top of each button front where the original skirt stitching was. This line becomes where the waistband gets re-attached. Fit new skirt in-between wrong sides of waistband and stitch shut. I stitched all the way around my waistband but you can handstitched shut if you don't want stitching to show.

Step 6, mark buttonholes and stitch. My buttonholes are 2.25" apart. I only had 5 matching buttons on hand, so I only made 5 buttonholes but it works perfectly! It's the perfect amount to get a great opening.

And that's it! This was a pretty quick alteration - I feel weird calling it a refashion because the garment wasn't really re-vamped.

This was a pretty quick project, although made a little longer when photographing and recording, but it's a nice project to take on! I made a little behind the scenes video which you can find on my Pinterest!

You can also see my new haircut and glasses (1st photo)! I cut 10" off two weeks ago and it feels great! I also finally updated my frames! I've had the same glasses frames for about 10 years and never felt the need to get new frames until this year when I got a new prescription. (I mostly wear contacts so glasses don't often make an appearance.)