Sewing together a doll and dress in a weekend with kids

I have a 1942 Singer sewing machine that I bought in college for $50.  It sews a bit crooked and I've only used a straight stitch on it but it met my needs.  This Christmas, after 20 years, I felt it was time to move on, so I got a new sewing machine.  I'm very excited.

My 1942 sewing machine with manual

As I talked to the sewing machine experts in the store, my kids perused the craft books.  My youngest found one to make palm sized dolls and begged me to buy it.

After flipping through the book to make sure they actually had decent directions and templates, I said, "You WILL make one of these if I buy it?  I'm not just getting it because you think might make it."

"Yes, yes I will." she promised.

I raised the stakes, "if you don't you are going to pay me for this book."

"I will make one mom."

So with my 50% off coupon, we bought a doll craft book.  On a second trip to the fabric store, my oldest learned how to peruse the patterns from the store and found one she liked for 99 cents.

"It's just 99 cents mom."

"You realize you have to buy the cloth and the interface and the zipper and the matching thread to make it.  It  will probably cost more then buying a similar dress already made in the store."

She's quite sensible when it comes to money so she said it's alright, we didn't have to buy it.

"Look," I said, "I'll buy the cheapest cloth I can find in this store so you can try it out.  If you make it maybe I'll consider getting more expensive cloth."

She brightened up and we went to the sale section of the cheap cloth.

To make a long story, longer, this weekend was spent making a palm doll and a dress.  Neither of which I have ever done.  It was the blind leading the blind but we did it.  Throughout the weekend I remind them that we are not expected to be perfect first time around.  (We did pretty good though, take a look at the pics below)

Lessons learned:
A present to mom is usually a present to the family.
You may not know how but that doesn't mean you can't do it.
Youtube is an invaluable source of information.
Talk about quality time with your kids.
My kids looked for the creative process, they couldn't wait to pick out embellishments or make tiny adjustments to their liking.
Yes we didn't know what we were doing but we made adjustments - ignorance is truly bliss :)

Results:

Our dining room table was taken over for the weekend

Doll, made in one afternoon, my daughter made a homemade dress
from scraps of the dress my eldest made.

Dress, that took all weekend