One Clear Dot

Growing up, my mom made a lot of my clothes. She is an excellent seamstress. She taught me, but I was often not willing to sit and actually retain knowledge. I did make some pillows and some doll clothes using a sewing kit, but I have not sewn using a machine in years. Lots of years – maybe 30 years.

Last week was my daughter’s Christmas program at her school and she was asked to wear her Christmas best. I had bought her a dress to wear for our annual family portrait, but since the rest of us had dressed casually, the dress I bought her was just a simple corduroy dress with fleecy trim from Gymboree. I needed something more formal for her school program.

So, I opened the closet and started poking around. I came upon this amazing dress my own mother had made for me when I was six. She made my sister a matching dress and to this day, my favorite childhood portraits are those taken while we were wearing these dresses. It is a deep burgundy velvet, floor length, puffy short sleeves, two rows of antique lace at the hem and one row at the sweetheart style neckline. I took it out of the closet and tried it on my daughter and except for the fact that it was perhaps half an inch too long, it fit wonderfully.

My daughter wore my old dress to her Christmas program. She was absolutely the best dressed kid there and she garnered many complements. It gave me several opportunities to tell people that it had been mine when I was a child. My mother was at the program with me and I could see how proud she was when she saw my daughter wearing that dress up on stage.

So, I have renewed my desire to learn to sew. I bought two Simplicity patterns and am going to start with some basic dresses in some lovely embroidered fabric I found on sale. I want to be able to sew my daughter heirlooms she might pass on to her own children. Since I am here with my own mother now, I have access to all the sewing supplies I could ever need. She has embroidering machines and at least three other sewing machines she uses regularly, depending on her needs. She also has a collection of antique machines, but I am not in the mood to learn on a machine that needs the pedal pumped.

Hopefully sometime very soon, I will be able to post pictures of the dresses I am making.

Posted on December 25th, 2007 by onecleardot
Filed under: Gadgets - Toys - Technology