Flat Twists and Practice Dress

Saturday night, I made another attempt at a fancy hair do on Zoe.  This time we tried flat twists.  Flat twists are kind of like a cornrows except that they are twisted instead of braided.  They are supposedly much easier because you only have to hold two strands of hair instead of three.  I kind of figured that if I can get them down then I can move on to cornrows.

Every time I do her hair, I realize how much more I have to learn.  I guess it is good that I am starting now.  I still can't part straight for the life of me and my sections are never even.  I am having a hard time finding the balance between tight enough to stay in, but not so tight that it hurts.

So although they weren't perfect, I was still pretty happy with them.  They were a little loose and fuzzy, but they stayed in.  I put most of them in on Saturday night and finished up Sunday morning.  She wore them to church on Sunday and then all day on Monday.  They may have been able to last another day or so but they were getting a little shabby looking.  All in all, not too bad for my first try.

My other big project lately has been working on Zoe's dress.  I am sewing her temple and blessing dress.  I decided to make it out of fabric from my wedding dress.  My dress had just been taking up space in the closet and I know no one is ever going to wear it, so I thought I might as well do something useful with it.  The thought of cutting into my wedding dress to sew a dress for my baby girl when I am not exactly (or even kind of) a seamstress though, was a little daunting, so I decided to make a practice dress too.  It is out of the same pattern, but with an easier fabric to work with.  I just wanted to make sure I could handle the pattern and that it fit.  I finally got it done and it turned out nice.  It fits, it doesn't look horrible, and I managed to sew in my first zipper (with a lot of help from my mom.)  I actually don't like the dress.  I think I will really like it in white for her blessing, but I don't like it in this fabric (I think she looks like a little pioneer baby.)  The funny thing is, I think I got more compliments on this dress at Church on Sunday than I have in anything else she has ever worn.  Who knew?  I guess everyone likes the pioneer look.

I didn't get any great pictures of the dress, but you can kind of see it here.

I now have just over a week to finish the real dress.  I will keep you updated on the progress.