Mother's Day and want to sew again.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! This holiday has made me sit and think some about being a Mom. Many people know we homeschool and have a rather strict schedule with school work. Having a lot of goals with homeschooling, working around the baby, and DH days off has made us start to miss out on some of our "fun" time. I am going to make some fun games for my children in the next few weeks. I will be making up some simple games for my school age son and the baby. I will post them when I get them done.

OH! I have some great news!!! My glasses are done. My glasses broke a few weeks ago. I have had to look around a HUGE super glue spot to use the computer. My DH is taking me to pick my new ones up tonight. I will then be able to sew again! I have some simple projects I have wanted to make up for a friend and her little boy but I am not good at sewing to begin with so I wasn't about to try doing it without my glasses.

I am going to take pictures later in the week with directions on how to make a skirt I made for my DD a few months ago. I want to make up a few for some friends but I have to find some sweaters in good shape to do it.

I have some plans in my head on how to make a church dress for my DD. If you check back I am sure you will get a laugh with that. I have no pattern or anything. I have looked around online and I can't find anything that looks at all like the dress in my head. I am going to try a two layer dress. I am going to make it tie at the shoulders. I am not planning on adding ribbon or bias tape for the tie. I am thinking of making a bunny ear shape on the front and back and tie a knot with them at the top. Can this be done or is this just something that looks good in my head? I am going to either make it an A line using one of my DD's tee shirts to estimate for the size or I am going to make it with a puffy bottom using a tee shirt to estimate the size for the top part and adding a skirt bottom 2 times her waist size. Please forgive my way of explaining things. I don't know a lot of sewing terms yet. My first try at everything never turns out so I think this will not be something she gets to wear next Sunday.

Does anyone have any advise on learning to sew from a book or online? I would like to learn more but I don't want to spend a ton of money on books that are not going to work for me. My sewing ability is about that of a child. I know how to turn on my machine. I can follow a few EASY patterns. I can't follow them all. I can make pants with elastic (PJ bottoms for son). I can sew a diaper (not the best looking). I can not make an even hem or sleeves the same length. I don't want to give up I do want to learn more. You can email me at schoolnsuch@aol.com if you have any ideas. I was thinking maybe a children's book on learning to sew is what I need? I can give it to my DD when she is old enough to learn.