because i just can't throw things away

Ryan has been purging his closet and drawers and yesterday handed me a stack of old t-shirts.  It's hard for me to just toss these out or even to hand them off as a donation.  It seems to me like they could be put to good use in our home somehow.  For rag dolls maybe?  Or even just for rags.  Some of the lesser castaways were converted into just that but then Naiya came along as I was cutting and asked if she could use some scraps for herself.  We made her a few bracelets and headbands from the collars and sleeves as well as a sheet for her doll bed.  Then I laid them out on the ground, stared at them for a while and let the ideas come.  "Why, there's a whole simple outfit right there!" I thought.

Five minutes later (literally) Naiya had on her new knit skirt and blouse.  She looks a bit the ragamuffin and I think both skirt and shirt could be cut shorter but it's good to know that, should an emergency arise wherein I have two expendable t-shirts on hand and my child needs to be clothed, there are options!

Mostly, I just thought it was a nifty idea.

To make the skirt I just ran a bit of elastic through the existing bottom hem of the shirt.

For the blouse, I cut off the two bottom t-shirt corners in a curved shape for the arms (one could lay an existing shirt for a pattern but I just eye-balled it).  Then, using strips of the other shirt, I ran a strap through the front and one through the back of the existing bottom hems.  These were then gathered and tied to each other at the shoulders.

I didn't hem anything.
It took, in fact, less than five minutes.