Sometimes You Just Have To Do Something That You're Afraid To Try

My 2nd grader recently had to give an oral book report in her class and she needed to be in costume. She was Sacajawea. The instructions said that we didn't need to go out and buy a costume as most costumes could be made out of simple items around the house. Easy enough... I remembered an Indian dress with the Halloween stuff that I thought she could still wear. It was made out of a pillow case by her Kindergarten class for a Thanksgiving program. And yes... she can still wear it. But it had the name "Little Eagle" written on it, so while we couldn't use it, I figured I could follow the pattern and make another. Simple stuff, right? But as we went looking for a pillowcase, my daughter indicated that the "girl in the picture on the book has sleeves." And I knew I wouldn't be able to get away with making anything out of a pillowcase. I'm pretty sure I broke out into a sweat as we headed to Joann's to purchase some fabric to make an Indian dress... with sleeves.

Inside I pitched a small tantrum, stamping my feet and yelling "But I don't know how to sew stuff like that!" We're talking a DRESS... WITH SLEEVES! I was really wishing at that moment that I lived closer to my Mom. Or at least paid more attention when she tried to teach me to sew as a kid.

The pressure was on. And my daughter was expecting greatness.

I searched YouTube for a video of a tutorial that might help. I have to SEE it to understand. If I just read instructions for a project like this, I'm not going to get very far. I watched one video that helped me make the neckline for the dress. But I wasn't finding help with sleeves.

Then I found an old stained t-shirt. I ripped out the sleeves at the seams and used them to make a pattern, and as I was tearing it, giving myself a visual idea of how to go about sewing sleeves on the dress. I nervously sewed on the first sleeve, and was delighted to see that it was actually going to look like a proper sleeve. The second sleeve came with more confidence.

While it's not perfect, and I certainly won't be winning any awards, my daughter was thrilled with her dress. And really... that's ALL that matters.

Once the dress was made, my daughter painted a design on the dress,
and we added a peacock feather applique and a belt.

To complete the outfit, we added feather
earrings and hair clips.

For shoes, we glued feathers to a pair
of cheap flip-flops.

My daughter did a fabulous job on her oral book report, and with the help of her costume, got an A+. And what's more, she wants to wear her Indian dress for Halloween this year.

It makes me proud that she was so proud.

From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. Psalms 8:2