Sewing

Alaina's Easter dress this year turned out super cute!  She picked out everything from the pattern to the material.  I've been trying to trying to do more difficult sewing projects lately to increase my skills.  This dress stretched me a bit.  The yoke (the green top part of the dress) was a bit of a challenge to attach to the rest of the dress.  The rose in the front of the dress also gave me a bit of trouble which I didn't expect.  I added some green tule to the underside of the skirt to help the dress flare out more.  The dress is also completely lined which Alaina likes because then the dress isn't itchy.  My biggest accomplishment with this dress is that I had minimal seam ripping, which mean I didn't have to take stuff apart and redo it.  I started 3 weeks before Easter Sunday to give myself plenty of time to work on the dress and I'm glad I did.  I had planned on sewing myself a dress for Easter too, but that just didn't happen.  I have a retro dress pattern I've had for over a year I really want to sew up for myself.  Last fall I sewed a button up shirt for Lincoln.  I cut down an old men's shirt and reused the buttons.  So no cost for me!  Again that project stretched me a bit and I certainly studied closely other button up shirts as I put it together.  My next planned project is to sew up a pair of jeans for Lincoln from a pair of Carson's where he split the crotch. Again no cost to me!  I've recently started teaching sewing lessons.  I've got two students right now.  A girl from our ward that's Carson's age and an adult friend of ours.  I really enjoy it and it's so fun to see their progress.