Emergency Sewing (long post)

My daughter calls me on Christmas Day and asks what I'm doing.  I tell her that I'm trying to get everything ready for Christmas Dinner.  We have dinner at 6:30 - 7:00pm so that everyone can visit with their families.  Makes it quiet for hubby and I in the morning.
Well it seems that my niece's sewing machine decided to die.  She still had presents to finish for Saturday.  I told my daughter to let me know if she wanted to borrow my singer(back up machine).  I didn't hear another word about it. 
Yesterday my daughter calls and asks what I'm doing and I tell her that I'm sitting on the couch with hubby and Kira.  We are trying to spend as much time with her as we can.  She wants to know if I can help my niece sew some dresses together.  I'm game.  What does she need done?  My niece calls and she is in tears.  She can't figure out a pattern to turn a mans dress shirt into a dress.  She is trying to follow a written pattern with measurements for a smaller child and enlarge it to fit her girls and her nieces using her father's shirts.  I tell her to bring them to me and I will figure it out.  It is now 4pm on Friday.  She stops and shows me what she is trying to accomplish.   It shouldn't take long I tell her not knowing that she needed a total of 3 dresses.  She is still in tears as it has taken her over 8 hours to make one and she still isn't done.  I check the web site and draw up a pattern from the instructions.  I send her home to finish the one she has been working on. 
I cut out the first one and get it sewn.  I have my granddaughter try it on as she is the same size as I'm making.  I make some changes to the pattern and call my niece.  My daughter sends her some pictures.  She is happy with it and asks me to make 2 more.  Not a problem.  I get busy and cut the first one out, sit and sew it up.  I go to do the next one and discover the back of the shirt that she wanted me to use is missing.  Now what do I do?  I call her and she says to use the other shirt and let her know how I make out.  This shirt is rayon and I haven't sewn with it in years.  I give it a go anyways.  I cut it all out and put it away until this morning.  It sewed up like a dream.  I did make sure that I put a ball point needle in to make my life easier.    Here are the finished dresses.  I really think that they are night shirts and not dresses.