The Dress

Way back in 1981-82 when Amy was 6 years old, I decided to make each of my daughters a special dress - more complicated than the ones I had made before. The Simplicity company had put out a new line of dress patterns for children called Gunne Sax (Gunny Sacks). These patterns had many small pieces and were a bit of a challenge for me.

I started with Amy's dress because at that time I really needed to feel the closeness to her that doing something like that would bring. I worked for days on it - it had three different fabrics, two different laces, and half a dozen buttons - a real labor of love. And while I worked on the dress I thought about this special little second daughter of mine and realized what a sweet, loving person she was developing into and how much I loved her. I also loved the dress, which fit her so well and looked so good on her.

But now I was on a roll and decided that I should make the other three girls a fancy dress. I used the same pattern for Jenny's dress as I did for Amy's, but made it purple instead of burgundy. I got a different pattern for Sara and Mary and did Sara's pink and Mary's blue.

My girls are the ones with the funny yellow feather pins on their dresses.

These are all of Mum and Dad's grandchildren as of 1982 - my children and Wendy's. Emily was born in 1986 and finished them off. Top row is Rob and Jason. 2nd row is Jenny and Hilary. 3rd row is Megan, Sara and Amy. Bottom row is Meredith, Mike and Mary. My girls are all wearing the dresses I made them. I think Wendy made her girls' dresses too.

This morning Amy's oldest daughter (my oldest granddaughter) Kenzie (7) came running into my place to show me what she was wearing to church.

It's the dress I made all those years ago. I had kept it for years - couldn't bring myself to give it away - and gave it back to Amy at some point. And now her sweet daughter is proudly wearing it. What a nice feeling to know that something that meant so much to me so long ago is making another little girl happy today.