I like your idea of the fabric--or even wide ribbon at the bottom. Try this to cover up the crease line that forms there.

I wouldn't cut them off. I'd cut off the hem and turn them up towards the right side of the jeans, the same width as the bottom trim. You will have the fold at the bottom. When she outgrows them, take off the trim and sew it to the raw edge at the bottom and it should cover the crease line that's there. A nice addition would be a scarf belt to match.

You can cuff them like you did and when you let them down then put a couple of rows of narrow ribbon on the bottom. One of which will go right on the crease line.

As for the dresses--

I don't know of any websites, but maybe this will help.

Look in pattern book to find a similar style of dress and see how you can alter them. If they are too big maybe you can cut them down by putting the new pattern on top of the dress pieces. If they are patterned, you can pick a color that's in it make a bodice out new plain material, or vise versa.

That's a few ideas--maybe someone else can come up with more

You should be able to find lots of sites about recycling, upcycling & repurposing old clothes - it's pretty popular these days. I know ThreadBanger.com has lots of tutorials for sewing new apparel from old. & CRAFTzine.com provides links to so many great projects & tutorials. Try putting 'dress' into their search windows & see how many results you get.

Also try searching 'upcycled clothing','recycled clothing', 'recycled sewing tutorial', etc. on a general search engine.

Here's a site that was the 1st hit when I searched 'upcycled clothing'...

P.S. You might find some cool ideas for jeans as well. HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Crafting a Green World

let your daughter find a Sharpie that matches the exact color of her faded, let-down jeans and then she can just color away the white line that tells they were hemmed in the first place. Test the idea on an old pair she may have now, if she's satisfied, you're in like Flin.