Fake Smock Dress Progress

Do you know how hard it is to capture a dragon in the morning before heading off to work?  Let me tell you, it's not too easy!

S went on a class trip to Canada's Wonderland (an amusement park) before school let out for the summer.  He wanted to bring something home for N as a surprise, because he's awesome like that.  This dragon head was his pick.  You see, I would have looked at it and this is what would have gone through my head:
"N would really like that.  How long will he use it?  Does he NEED it?  No. Will he get enough use out of it to make it worth the cost?  Where on earth will he keep it?  What will he do with it when he's done with it?"  And then I would have left it there.

S looked at it and thought: "N would LOVE that".  So he bought it.  And N does indeed love it.  I guess that's what makes brothers so awesome.

Now, N was in bed when S brought it home.  And the next morning, 5 minutes after he had it, they noticed a seam coming apart.  He brought it home on June 14th, and I finally fixed it last night.  Finally!  Now my questions is...why, oh why, can't things be made with a little care so as not to disappoint a child?

On the crafting front...I have finally made some progress on my "fake smock" dress.  The first part of the dress "how to" can be found here.

I have finished sewing the "tubes" for the elastics to go through.  My dress has 16 tubes, so I cut 16 pieces of elastic and attached a safety pin to the end of each.

I don't know how to share the directions for this part.  Basically, my hips are the widest part I had to worry about (as I am *ahem* not very top heavy shall we say?) and I plan on stepping into the dress to pull it on.  Basically, I measured my hips with a fabric tape measure (mine was between 37 and 38 so I called it 38 - it's hard to find the widest point).  Then I held one end of the elastic at the tip of the tape measure and pulled it until it was the hip measurement.  Then I let it unstretch (it happened to be 18" when not stretched out, but it seems to me to be very stretchy elastic).  Then I added 2" so that it wouldn't be too tight going on...I don't want to rip anything after all.  Then I checked if it would be too loose on the "bodice" let's call it...I don't like clothes that is too tight, but it was all good.  If your biggest measurement is the chest measurement (not my case) then you would probably want to reverse those instructions.

Now, just feed your elastics through the tubes one by one.

Pin the two ends of the elastic together once you have it all the way through the tube.  I also pinned the elastic to the flap that will cover the openings (after I had one of the safety pins sucked right into the tube and had to fish it back out again).

This is what it looked like after 3 elastics.  I have a ways to go yet, but that's as far as I got last night.  I will update again when it is done.

On the reading front...I am reading "The FARM Chicks in the Kitchen" which has recipes, stories, and crafts all mixed together.  I kind of like it for just reading with breakfast and lunch and  the like.  I have bookmarked a few recipes to try (one being an apple puff pancake).
I am also reading "The boy who loved Anne Frank".  It is a fiction about what Peter's life could have been like had he survived (apparently, they have records of everyone in the house except Peter).  I'm not very far into it, but so far, I think it will be fantastic.

And now the link ups:
Needle and thREAD over at In the Heart of my Home
Stash Bash at Crunchy Catholic Momma
Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia on Friday, obviously.