Thai Fishing Pants Turned Strapless Dress

I love garage sales!  Who doesn't?  Goodwill is great for finding crazy discounted designer pieces, but garage sales are definitely the way to go when it comes to refashioning.  Usually, I don't like to pay over a few dollars for a piece I plan to refashion.  In fact, the less I pay, the more risks I feel I can take.  This is exactly what happened with these Thai Fishing pants that I got for less than a dollar at a garage sale a few weekends ago. 

Super funky print.

I really loved the funky print of these pants, but I really do not like Thai fishing pants.  During my travels to Thailand, I bought a few pairs, thinking that I would wear them all the time.  I do wear them to bed, but that's about all.  I'm not a fan of how they make my butt look like a big bubble.  So, I cut these up right away.  

First, I cut the top off.

Yes, terrible photo, but you can see that the top is cut of.

Usually, Thai fishing pants have a tie that wraps around the top to hold it on your waist; kind of like a paper sack.  I used the seam ripper to take this skinny tie off the back.

As for the bottoms, I cut them strait down the middle, so that I had a cut straight edge on each pant leg.

Each pant leg is cut straight.

After cutting, I sewed the top layer of the bottom pieces together, and then put the separate bottom and top pieces, wrong side out, on Dotty (my dress from).  I could see in the front that there were places that were sticking out near the breast area.  This let me know that I needed to add darts so that it would fit nicely.

The odd thing hanging off the side is a random little pocket.

I then sewed up the darts and then sewed the cut top to the bottom (right sides together).  I put the piece back on Dotty, wrong side out, and began pinning it to size in the back and sides. 

Back and sides pinned.

The sides and about 3/4 of the back were sewed up.  I added a zipper at the top and used the skinny tie that I had detached earlier as a belt.  Within a few hours, I had a very cool and funky strapless dress.