How to Transform Your Old Bridesmaids Dresses

A step-by-step guide, plus inspiration, plus 3 outfit formulas to get lots of wear of your creative masterpiece.

Nov 10, 2023

I love helping people shop for clothes. I really do. I don’t like having a lot of things (especially because I’ve moved every year since 2017), but I love shopping, so the happy medium is helping other people shop.

But in the same breath, there’s just so much over-consumerism in our culture that it’s hard to constantly recommend new clothes. It’s just as important when building a long-lasting wardrobe, to buy secondhand AND repurpose what you already own.

Cue the bridesmaid’s dress.

Now, you could just save them. Growing up, one of my mom’s best friends only had boys, so she gave me and my sister all of her bridesmaids dresses. As elementary/middle school girls, that was a DREAM. We were constantly playing dress-up, so we were very grateful for the donation to our wardrobe. It was such a joy, that I’m telling you, even if you’re not into DIY, don’t give away your dresses.

And you could sell them, but that’s just not as fun.

Here’s the other option.

One huge trend this year is the maxi skirt. And with the total influx of balletcore and barbiecore, I don’t think flirty, fun, and feminine trends are going anywhere. Not to mention, who cares about trends. If you love it, it’s something you should incorporate anyways.

So, let’s say for the holiday season that you wish you had a maxi skirt to wear with an oversized sweater or jacket.

You’re connecting the dots, aren’t you? You already have that maxi skirt. It’s just in the shape of a dress.

I’ve already started the demolition and recreation of a bridesmaids dress, so I’m going to show you pictures and the thought process as well as how to do this even if you can’t sew.

And also, this will somewhat be part of a series as I’ve remembered that I’ve loaned out two dresses. When they come back, I’ll be transforming them too (into different styles than the maxi skirt).

Without further ado.

Share this with someone who has an old bridesmaid’s dress!

Here’s the dress from one of my best friend’s weddings in 2021. The color was absolute perfection.

sydhlucas

A post shared by @sydhlucas

What you can’t see on my dress is that the zipper stops at the lower back and the straps criss cross, giving a bit of an open back .This allowed me to literally cut off the top part of the dress (cheers for not having to move the zipper!).

Now, if your dress lets you do the same, go ahead and cut. You just want to make sure that you don’t cut the seam around the waist.

Then, chiffon is great for a bridesmaids dress but not for my ideal maxi skirt. So, I cut off the layer of chiffon.

That left me with this:

Now, I will plan to sew the waist so that there’s no excess material. HOWEVER. If you’re planning on wearing this skirt under a sweater or jacket, then it doesn’t matter. #freespirited.

Now it’s not too long if I want it to truly be a maxi skirt and I wear it with heels or shoes with chunky soles. But if I decided I only want to wear it with loafers, ballet flats, or simple trainers, I would measure on myself where I wanted the skirt to fall and then cut it.

Here are the inspo pics from Instagram:

claradyrhauge