Re-fashioning - The PC term for being cheap!

A few months ago I went to the Goodwill outlet store and spent over an hour digging through piles and piles of clothes. For anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of visiting a Goodwill outlet store, it's a little bit like dumpster diving. They pile clothes in these big garbage-like bins on wheels and they are not sorted and NOT cleaned (I use mega-heavy-duty rubber gloves). The reason I love this place though is you pay for clothes by the pound so it's super cheap!

Okay, getting to the point of the story... while I was there I found a t-shirt for myself, and after I got home and washed it (several) times in (scalding) hot water, I found out that it was just plain ugly on me. I decided it would be perfect to practice my "re-fashioning" skills. I guess that really sounds better than saying "I took an old t-shirt and made some clothes for my baby because I'm too cheap to buy her clothes at the store".

I used the t-shirt from the thrift-store and picked up some cheap fabric for the skirt. This dress cost less than $4 to make and I even had enough t-shirt material left over to make a pair of legging shorts for her to wear under the dress! Perfect for times like these...

And wearing shorts under dresses comes in handy when you need to spontaneously climb a wall in sparkle shoes!

I am far from being an expert seamstress (as in, it took quite some time before I realized I was having issues sewing today because I was using a broken needle), but this dress was super easy to make. Head on over to This Mama Makes Stuff for a great tutorial on how to make a t-shirt dress and Make it and Love it has a simple tutorial on making your own leggings!