What does re-fashion mean to me?

I had planned to take this linen/rayon, light blue floral print dress and turn it into a tunic.

I did so but was unsatisfied with how the finished product looked on me. I am trying to decide if the lesson learned from this is that I do not wear sheath style well or that pastel floral is not for me. I set it aside for potential use in some other non-wearable project and then my gaze landed on a sweater I had been holding on to for a while. A lovely blue and white cotton knit together with raglan style sleeves and a turtleneck. The reason I hadn't worn it was that neck. I have developed a taste for lower neck-lines and the sweater, while beautiful and snuggly has been snubbed for that one issue. I then made the choice and a few snips and a bit of knit bias tape and I have the sweater that I will be wearing today and hopefully many times in the future, ready to go. (As well as a headband quickly cobbled together from the neck piece)
For me a re-fashion is taking something I have already and changing it to better suit me in the right now. (whether that thing is an article of clothing or a chunk of fabric I have acquired from a thrift-store) That dress will get used to make other things but most likely not something I will be wearing. Since I have learned from the doing, while the end result was not what I was aiming for the time was not wasted. Does what I end up making from the dress still count as re-fashioning or does that fall under the re-use header?

Since I don't have any other good (meaning at all well lit, relevant to topic or in anything approaching focus) pictures today I thought I would share a few links to tutorials I have used with a fair amount of success.

A tutorial on how to draft and sew skirts. I used this to create a lovely maxi from a fabric I had been hoarding for years.
http://madmim.com/drafting-and-sewing-a-maxi-skirt-stretch-yourself/

This has good verbiage and fairly clear visuals on how to draft and construct a "Peasant style" top. I used this to make a nearly ankle length dress for my little girl and have drafted a pattern to attempt a top for myself soon.
http://thingsofcloth.blogspot.com/2008/07/adult-size-peasant-blouse-tutorial.html

This site is in German but the chart is clear. I took this idea and ran with it. Ended up drafting a cross-over pinafore style apron pattern and made 3 of them over a couple of days. Two of them I managed to put pockets on.
http://efraimstochter.de/bastelideen/pippi_kostuem.shtml

If any of these links do not work for you or the site goes away please let me know.