It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update for my Dresses for Missions ministry. Why? Because I haven’t hardly touched my sewing machine since June. Yikes!

Between February (when the ministry got started) and June I managed to sew 16 of my own dresses, plus I finished off about 25 additional dresses for the group. That’s a lot of sewing!

Then I got involved in redoing the dining room and library… then I had to start getting more involved in playing piano for the choir at church… and then it was Christmas time.

One of my New Year’s Determinations is to spend more time at my sewing machine. I would love to get one new dress done each week, but at this point I will be happy if I can manage to make two new dresses a month. Luckily my mom and sister have given me a TON of pillow cases for this cause. The pillow cases allow me to make a fancy little dress in a shorter amount of time. I’ll show you how in a little bit.

Dress #17 – I found this material in the clearance area at Hobby Lobby. Immediately I knew it would make a cute sundress. Also, it gave me an opportunity to use some trim colors that I normally steer away from due to the fact that they aren’t my taste.

I even managed to find some green lace that went perfectly with it! Now, it’s a bit wrinkled because I started working on this back in August. Then I did a little more on it in November. All that I had left to do was sew on the ribbon and lace.

Dress #18 – The picture isn’t very good on this one, but I wanted to post this today so I had to make due with the lighting that I had in my dining room.

This was a pillow case that my mom had given to me. You can’t really see it, but there is some really vibrant purple and yellow in this dress. Since the pattern was already in-your-face I knew that I wanted to keep the trim simple.

I realized how long it had been since I had sewn one of these when I went to sew the trim around the arm holes. I actually had to sit and recall how to do it. At one point this was such an automatic thing that I didn’t even have to think about it. I had some wide lace to wrap around the bottom and I finished it off with an olive colored ribbon. It only took me a few hours to put this one together, but it was just as satisfying to finish as the pink one before it.

I hope to find more time in the coming weeks to sew a little more. It’s so therapeutic to use thread and needle to create such pretty dresses. I just hope that they bring a smile to a little girl’s face.