Ladies skirt to a little girls summer dress...

I've had this skirt for a while but the zipper broke and it's too big, but I just loved the pattern so I never got rid of it.  I decided to make into a summer dress for Tori.  I've made this same type of dress just by cutting two pieces of fabric from the store the same way.  So I first layed one of her dresses on top of the skirt and ended up cutting off about 4 inches on each side of the skirt.  Then I put right sides together and sewed the side seams.

After turning it back right side out I cut of pieces like below on each side for her arms.

Then I cut the back a couple inches lower than the front.

Then I hemmed all the edges all around the front and back.

Below is the back of the dress and I sewed one edge of a piece of elastic to it.

Make sure that your elastic is far enough down by testing it and folding over the edge to see if you can cover the elastic. (Hence pic below)

Below you can see how the elastic is attached and I pulled it out to the side.

Next I pinned and hemmed after I folded the fabric over the elastic.

After I did that I attached a safetly pin to the edge of the elastic.

Then I put the safety pin back through the opening and use it to push and pull the elastic along to the other side.

Then I sewed the elastic on that side and snipped off the extra.

Next I took ribbon and sewed it to the inside front of the dress.

I wanted a criss cross back so I crossed it and sew it to the back of the dress.  The straps were actually too long so I had to take them off, shorten them, and then re-attach them.  Also I had to make a few adjustments in the front by hemming the sides in a little more for a better fit.  It's all really easy, but just know you'll be adjusting here and there for a perfect fit.

It turned out so cute.  The back has a cute elastic back that holds up really good.