How do you do this again?: Week #19 Converting the Stained T with Tutorial

So I cheated a little bit. I did make a dress for Lily Bear, but it was not the same kind of T-shirt dress that I have been making. That counts right?

Challenge: Using the Stained T
Project: T-shirt Dress with Cotton Skirt

We have an 11year span between Lily Bear and Elle Bean (our second youngest) and as such, we had next to no baby gear when we found out we were expecting Lily.

Elle Bean is a big sister!

We must have timed it just right because we had baby items thrust upon us from every direction from friends who declared definitively that they were, capital D O N E, done having kids. I think the only thing we bought was the changing table (okay my dad actually got that one for us, thanks dad).
Along with the equipment came the piles of baby clothes. Wow, all I can say is wow. I probably really won't have to buy anything for Lily Bear for years to come (not that that will stop me from sewing some things here and there).
As happens with baby clothes, some of them came to us with little stains. Some items were so cute, it hurt to not figure out something to do with them.

Case in point:

This shirt came to us from our friends Karl and Natalie and their daughter Clara (they had twin boys born two weeks before Lily Bear was born, so we got all their girlie stuff). It was so cute, but had a stain just above the belly button.
The sheet I found at a garage sale.
Let's put them together and see what we get.

First I cut the shirt above the stain.

I measured the width (a) of the new bottom of the shirt and multiplied (a) x 2 for the width of the skirt then multiplied x 1.5 to add fullness to the skirt. (I AM GOING TO CHANGE THIS TO x2 NEXT TIME, I WANT IT A LITTLE BIT MORE FULL) So the width of the skirt = a x 2 x 1.5

I then took one of Lily Bears dresses that I liked the length (b) of and used the skirt measurement. I took (b) + 1.5 inches for hem and seam allowance. So the length of the skirt = b + 1.5 inches

After cutting the skirt, I hemmed the bottom and sewed up the side seams.
Next I sewed a long stitch (4 on my machine) around the top of the skirt; a gathering stitch. Pulling the bobbin thread, I gathered the skirt to be the same width as the shirt.
I then pinned the skirt and the shirt right sides together and sewed them together.

Turn the dress right side out and: ta da, the stained shirt is now a cute dress for Lily Bear.
I made a little head band from some of the left over T-shirt and the fitted part of the sheet.