The Homecoming Dress!

  My day was spent delving into the craft room.  The place seems to be the receptacle for all sorts of things that have to be stashed out of sight and in a hurry!  There are fine things in there that pertain to the clue hunt that need to be kept from prying eyes.  Well, all of this "stashing" makes for one messy room.  Since the weather did not allow for any outside work, the room called to me for a bit of help.  Box after box was dragged out into the living room where I could sort and discard.  One box was filled with toys for the Grandlittles.  These were given to me by my brother.  He has been doing the same thing that I am...sorting and discarding but his discards usually come here.  The box of toys are ones that his granddaughter has outgrown and are still in great condition. She wished for my grandbabies to have the toys so he toted the box here. Macie played with a lot of Barbie dolls just as most little girls have in the past (and still do!). So did her mom, Brandi.  So it stands to reason, that a lot of the toys were dolls and clothes.  When my brother first brought the box, one dress caught my eye.  It seemed terribly familiar.  I figured that Darling Daughter must have had the very same dress for one of her Barbie dolls.  She collected the dolls and had hundreds of outfits for them.  Perhaps that dress was a standard outfit that most little girls owned.  It was pretty...I have to admit!

  Today when I pulled the box of dolls, there was that dress.  The yellow dress with black lace trim stood out above all of the others.  For some reason, I was particularly drawn to this dress.  I noticed that there were a few stains on the dress so a good washing was in order.  As I slipped the frock from the doll, a sudden realization hit me.  No wonder this dress seemed so familiar! I had actually made this dress!  Inside, the seams were all done by hand and with my own stitches.  Yep!  Memories started flooding back. I had not made this for the now fourteen year old, Macie.  I made this for her thirty-seven year old mom!  This dress was over thirty years old!  Wow!  I could not believe that it was still around, much less, that it was still in such good condition!  I sat there stunned.  

  The dress was made way back in the day when Mark and I were struggling newlyweds.  He was working construction jobs at the time so money was short.  As you know, construction jobs depend on the weather and one year, the weather was much like what we have been enduring for the past four months or so....rain...lots of rain.  That made jobs scarce and money scarcer.  I resorted to making Christmas gifts.  All of the little girls on my list received doll clothes.  I had borrowed a Barbie doll from one of them and started stitching with whatever scrap cloth I could get my hands on.  I even cut up odd clothing pieces to use. Trims, antique buttons, handkerchiefs, reused snaps and other notions made for some interesting pieces.  The girls loved their "new" doll clothes and I gained a wealth of crafting knowledge.  It was one of those win/win situations.  

  As I sat there staring at that tiny yellow and black dress, a thought occurred to me.  This was a true "homecoming" gown.  After some thirty odd years, the dress came back to where it originated.  Wow!