PERFECTLY IMPERFECT-I may not be the best at what I do, but Nobody has MORE fun trying than I do! :)



Saturday, December 13, 2008

IMT Challenge-Dress

For this week's dress challenge on IMT I thought I'd share one of my favorite dresses ever.

It probably looks like it needs throwing away to you guys, but I wore this little dress when I was about a year old, and it is well worn. I feel very loved when I look at this little dress. It's about 58 years old and after I outgrew it mama put it in the cedar chest with some other baby dresses, which were a little fancier and more delicate, but this one is dearest to me. She gave them all to me a few months ago when she was cleaning out things. I only wish she had saved the ones she made for me.

My paternal grandmother, whom I adored, made this little dress, just for me, out of a cotton flour sack. I had many little flour sack dresses and diapers, but this is the only one I still have. It was made on her old treadle sewing machine, I'm sure without a pattern. Faded from the many times mama carried water, washed it on a rub board, and ironed it, it's now also yellowed with age, torn under both arms and has a few loose stitches from much wear. The little placket opening in the back never had a button and was held together with a safety pin.

It may not look like much to anyone else, but to me, it represents a lot of love. And, yes, I was a chubby baby. :)

12 comments:

lee said...

gosh how create that you saved it. I would have loved to have something like that of mine. However my mother was not a saver.

s.l.greek said...

what a wonderful story. my mother wasn't a saver either. the shot of the dress was wonderful, it made want to read the story. great job.

Tammie Lee said...

How wonderful. So nice that you still have and appreciate this little dress and how much history it has!

Anonymous said...

sharon, thank you so much for stopping by! take care, and love that dres!

AscenderRisesAbove said...

awww that is the sweetest thing I have seen in a long time

Sam said...

Thank you for visiting my blog!

This dress is lovely. How wonderful that it has been saved over the years. The only piece of clothing I have that I wore as a child is a pair of red bell-bottoms. They're uglier than you can imagine! :-)

Sharon Tomlinson said...

It is so sweet. How cool that you have it now. And Oh how I remember flour sacs. I learned to sew on them.

DMG said...

Your dress looks like a precious treasure about to me. Reading about its origin made me recall my oldest son's first Christmas. I was in school and poor as a church mouse, but I was so excited to be Santa Claus for the first time. I made the most pitiful teddy bear you ever saw out of a brown velour shirt, and my son, who is now 27, still loves that ugly old bear! Thanks for the beautiful holiday memories. Happy Christmas!
Love,
Alberta

Anonymous said...

This really brings back memories for me. My Mama made me lots of cute dresses and sunsuits out of flour sacks when I was a little girl. I wish she had saved just one of them. I'm so glad you have this sweet little dress with all of its memories. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Blessings,
Charlotte

Ozstuff said...

I am not sure my first comment went through. Wasn't paying attention to see if it was being delayed for editing etc.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I so enjoyed your story about your baby dress. Brought back a lot of memories from my own childhood and remembering how resourceful older generations were in making ends meet and wasting nothing.

indybev said...

I so identified with your story! My dresses were made of print feedsacks, and my underwear of plain white! When things were worn out, they were pieced into a quilt. I have a couple of quilts with pieces I can identify from mother's feedsack dresses or aprons which I treasure. Thanks for sharing!

Lisa Rivas said...

What a darling story of this little "flour sack dress", would love to see a picture of you in this wee outfit.

So glad I came by and you have a Happy New Year 2009!