Mostly Dresses...Ok, it's all dresses

I got to take these three girls this weekend just for kicks and giggles. These little red heads are so much fun. 

They wanted their hair done since their mom leaves for work early in the morning during the week and dad doesn't do hair. I was all too happy to oblige. I was excited how well the double braids turned out on the oldest two. I had never done it before.

  

Brooke was so funny. She started pulling her braids out and when I asked her why? she said, "betause I not weady da fust time you did dem." It was so cute. Jenny is definitely a girly-girl and wanted to be in dress-ups all day.  After I did  their hair and they had eaten breakfast, they wanted a tea party. So we cut up a doughnut and a slice of pizza and had a tea party in the living room.

Jenny being in her dress-up led to the other girls wanting  dress-up dresses. So we did pillowcase dresses. It was the only way I could whip up 3 of them in a short amount of time. 

Nikki is turning 8 this year and insisted on helping. When she sat down she said "I always wanted to learn how to sew." That's what I love about my machine. I have a setting on it that controls the speed so that no matter how hard you push on the foot pedal the speed stays the same. She did very well and really is moving the fabric through all by herself. She did the straight lines and fed the ribbon through with a safety pin almost 100% by herself with a little bit of coaxing. 

So, of course, because Nikki helped with hers, Jenny had to help with hers. She positioned her fingers correctly and everything. At 6 I was a little worried about her ability to do it, but she did beautifully. She knew how to do the foot pedal all by herself. While I was making Nikki's, she kept designing clothes on my dress form. She would drape fabric on it, then say, "how does it look now?"

This is them all done. Except for Nikki, (who decided she would rather have a blue dress than the white and pink floral just in the nick of time before I cut into it), the other two stayed in theirs for hours. On Nikki's we put some line white loop ribbon along the bottom. For Jenny's I found some iron-on hearts and attached them.

 

I was up late Saturday night finishing her dress. She loved it. After I did her hair for church she kept twirling and twirling around. She was so excited.

I had originally made the red and black ones back in 2009 for a wedding reception that never happened (but's that's another story for a different day) and am a little shocked that the two oldest still fit in theirs.

They wanted a picture in their matching dresses with their tiaras they'd won miniature golfing the night before. Instead of saying "cheese" they said "PRINCESSES!"

It was fun to have them. I have a new respect for mothers with small children who sew while they are awake.  What should have taken an hour to 90 minutes tops, ended up taking about three.  No wonder my mother did all her sewing at night after we were in bed. I had so many little helpers while I was doing their pillowcase dresses. I did most of Brooke's dress after the girls had gone to bed. Even with the liner and a zipper, it only took me about 4 hours to do and that includes the cutting. Zippers don't seem as daunting anymore. And after making this dress 5 times before, by number 6 it was cake! I was thankful for the opportunity to have them, even though it really pulled at my baby hunger.

Linking up to Finish it up Fridays with Amanda Jean  and Project Run and Play's signature look linky party