Extreme Makeover, T-shirt Edition

(Sorry for the corny title. I couldn't think of anything more appropriate, and I've only had one cup of coffee yet today. Blame the corny-ness on the lack of caffeine induced inspiration.
I really enjoy reading Ruffles and Stuff, and recently she's done some great tutorials on making over clothing that has stains or is too small. You can also blame in small part my recent ruffle fetish on her, although in all fairness the Ruffle Gene has been in my bones since I was born.

In an exercise in completely unwarranted optimism, I went through the kids' summer clothing on the off chance that we would have Global Warming of Massive Proportions and it would, well, get warmer here in the Frigid North.

This was Breanna's shirt from last summer, and it had a small ink stain on the bottom. Yes, I know, it is possible to remove ink stain, but it was also a little too short for her anyway. (Okay, okay, I'm just trying to justify the fact that I cut it up!)
Such a cute little shirt should not be wasted!
I cut off the bottom three inches of the shirt and set the bottom portion aside for later use.
Then, using an old blue sheet that I had on hand, I cut two large rectangles which I sewed together at the side seams. I did a long running stitch on the top, and gathered the top until it fit the width of the shirt. Then I just sewed the shirt to the skirt!

(My Mum once taught me that a good rule of thumb for gathering ruffles is to make the ruffled fabric 2.5 times bigger than the intended final size. See Mum, I did listen! Occasionally.)

My wonderful sewing machine Phaff has several cute stitches, so I used some bright green thread and sewed a little oval embroidery edging onto the hem. The hem itself I left unfinished because I rather liked the semi-frayed look.
Remember the bottom cut-off part of the shirt? Well, I cut through one side seam, and then cut the length of the shirt into two long strips of fabric which I gathered into two ruffles and sewed onto the skirt in a circle to make the rosettes. The final rosette was a strip of the sheet which I first edged with a green zigzag so that the hem wouldn't fray too much, but just enough to match the frayed hem of the skirt.(If you'd like a good tutorial on ruffles, see Ruffles and Stuff's excellent tutorial here).

Voila! A perfect little play dress for Miss Boo!
It's still quite cold here, so she currently wears it with a long-sleeved layering tee underneath for added warmth. This is her favorite outfit and every three weeks when I pry it off her dirty little body to wash it she literally waits by the washing machine for it to finish so that she can put it back on.