Heidi's blessing dress

When Heidi was born we had planned on blessing her while we were in Utah for Christmas.  Which gave me time to make her blessing dress.  I had looked all over online for the perfect dress but kept coming up short mainly because I didn't want to spend the money for the type of dress that I wanted.  I finally decided that instead of buying one I would make her dress.  It was a very big challenge to take on especially since I hadn't really sewn much more than baby blankets.  In high school I took a sewing class and made a hoodie which is what gave me the courage to take on the blessing dress.  It was kind of daunting though because I didn't have a sewing expert standing by to watch over my progress and to answer my questions.  Which is why I decided to make a practice dress first.  I am so glad I did that because I made plenty of mistakes on that dress, which helped me avoid them on Heidi's dress.  The downfall was that the practice dress took forever!  I asked a lot of questions and had to get reassurance on a lot of things.  I also made it harder on myself because I had decided to piece two patterns together and then alter those a little bit to get the dress that I wanted.  I asked many questions to many different people (including questions on which lace to buy because I couldn't make up my mind), but in the end had to just trust myself.  I'm also so grateful that I was able to make a new friend in the ward because she let me borrow her serger!  Yes I am that person who uses other peoples things.  At least I got a great new friend out of it.  Too bad she has moved so the next time I want to make a blessing outfit I'll have to find someone new or buy my own serger.
Before I forget I want to add a neat experience I had while making the dress.
While I was making her dress I came to a crossroads on how to do her sleeves.  I was very unsure of myself and of my skills and became overwhelmed.  Which is when I had a comforting feeling come over me and I felt like I was told what to do.  I immediately relaxed and knew that was exactly how I needed to do her sleeves and that I would be able to do it.  I know for a fact that it was Heavenly Father helping me because he wants us to achieve at our goals.  It might have seemed like an overwhelming thing to me but as soon as he helped me it became accomplishable.  Heavenly Father cares about us and he cares about our needs, even if it's just figuring out how to sew a blessing dress.  I love that I got to have this experience because to me it made making this dress even more meaningful to me.  I love how it turned out and I wish I would've gotten more pictures of Heidi wearing it on her blessing day.  Oh well life is life.  I'm grateful that I can give Heidi her dress and that she can know that yes even though it's not finished beautifully that her mom made it just for her.

The practice dress

Trying on the top before I attached it to the bottom