JENNI'S DRESSES

I finally completed a very old unfinished project.  I was always a sewing-maniac mother, but my daughter never once complained about all of the home-made dresses with ruffles, lace, pinafores, and floral fabric.  My mother always took pity on her and bought her plenty of jeans, t-shirts, and sweaters to also wear.

Back in 1973 when I started to sew for my baby girl, I started a box of scraps from all the dresses, etc. that I made for her.  I always planned to make her a quilt from those scraps.  Finally now for her 47th birthday, I finished that quilt.

It is small at only 26" inches square, but contains over 100 different pieces of fabric and the lace and trims I used over the years.

 It was tricky, on occasion, to combine different kinds of fabrics from cotton to velvet, polyester knits to lace.  I backed some of the rebellious fabrics with a foundation which helped. 

In 1989, I remember struggling sewing a black velvet dress basting each seam.  It was the same sewing the tiny square of velvet into the quilt.

My favorite ones to work on were the teal peau-de-soie long formal and her senior pageant dress with all the beads and sequins hand-sewn on the bodices. 

In addition for her birthday,

I accumulated pictures into book form of her wearing some of the clothes I had made.  I also sewed for her brother until he started to school when he started to rebel.  I had sense enough to quit sewing for him!  Some of the pictures are really bad, but they still bring back many fun memories. 

Remember the Gunne Sax dress craze? - of course, I had to make one for her.  Thank goodness for middle school and contact lenses, so those huge glasses were a thing of the past.  She also had her share of quilted vests.  After all, I was a quilter!

We were really into the lace and florals in middle school.

This quilt will never win a prize or mean anything to anyone but Jenni and me.  

Happy Birthday, Jenni.  Hope you enjoy the reminiscence, and thanks for being so patient with me.  I know you lived in fear I would stick a straight pin in you!

I'm joining in the following:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday
Cooking Up Quilts for Main Crush Monday
Ems's Scrapbag for Moving It Forward Monday
What a Hoot Quilts for BOMS Away Monday