Dresses, dresses, dresses!

 Here are some of the pictures from Christmas.  I'll upload more and make a slide show later.

Here are the girls in their skating dresses.  Natalie's we have to adjust the top so it's not so low.  When we measured her, she was a smaller size in the top than what was recommended around, but we didn't take into count her height and didn't adjust the pattern for her height.  So we're thinking about detaching the skirt and adding about two inches of fabric with some ribbon to it to make it a bit taller.  But otherwise they all fit perfectly!!!!

Alexis also got a pair of her own skates.

Not related to skating at all, but.... Natalie asked Santa for a dress.  My rule for the kids is when we go to visit Santa, they get to only ask him for one of their wishes. (That way I can see which one they really want). And the dress is the thing Natalie had asked him for.  And he delivered!  Isn't she beautiful?!?!?

My Project

The past week I've been working on a project.  Natalie's skating dress is falling apart so I was looking at new dresses to get her for Christmas.  My goodness, they are expensive!!!  The cheapest one I could find was $55 + tax.  A little too expensive for my blood.  So I did some research and found a pattern online for a new dress.  Then I went into the fabric store and the fabric was a little too expensive, so I did more research online and found (what I thought would be) some fabric for much cheaper, so I ordered both the fabric, enough to make two dresses, and the pattern and waited anxiously for it to arrive.  When the fabric arrived, I was so bummed because the fabric wasn't stretchy (even though it was stretchy satin) and wouldn't work at all for the dresses.  I thought about it for a couple days and then decided to bite the bullet and bought the expensive fabric, again, enough for two dresses (one for Natalie and one for Alexis).  And with Kathy's help, I made them a skating dress each for Christmas!  I'm super proud of them and excited to have the girls open them on Christmas morning!  And the best part is, I have plenty of fabric (apparently I went a little overboard when buying it) I can probably make two more for when they grow out of these, or two more to sell on Ebay, or whatever!  

I tuned a bunch of this....

...into two skating dresses!  I'm super proud of them!  With Kathy's help, they turned out GREAT!

Natalie's dress

Alexis's dress

My favorite part of them.  They both will have the little button, I just haven't sewn on Alexis's yet.