I bought a dress at a thrift shop today because I liked the color and the neckline. And because it was under $5. Of course, everything else about the dress was problematic. Long poofy sleeves. A weird mid calf length. About a size too big for me. What’s a girl to do??

Well first of all a girl takes a before picture. (but not before removing one of the sleeves, I got ahead of myself)

Once I took my delayed picture, I pulled the other sleeve off. I don’t actually own a seam ripper, but I do have a pair of tiny scissors that work really well for ripping seams out.

Once I got both sleeves off I hemmed the now sleeveless- sleeve holes.

And I took the dress in above the elastic waist. All together I reduced the measurement around the top part of the dress by around 6 inches by pulling each of the side seams in and sewing a new seam.

Then came the tricky part, turning the bottom into a romper. I ripped the back seam straight up and cut straight up the front. Then I cut the future pant areas to make a crotch inseam. I basically stared at the construction of my pajama pants and tried to mimic the shaping. Once I sewed the inseam and the inside seam of the pant.

The length was a trial and error process. I am pretty happy with my final results. The front could be a little better but I like it overall. Then I put on the belt that came with the dress.

And now this is how it looks:

It took right around an hour and I think the restyle is pretty successful. I have been wanting a romper for a while and now I have one!