Thursday, May 28, 2009

The 1...2...3...Dress



"She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple." Proverbs 31: 22

I made a dress last week for my granddaughter. It was SO easy that I called it "The 1...2...3 Dress" because that's how many steps there were to making it. I had been meaning to sew something for her for a long time but had just been putting it off. When I was "young" I used to make clothes for my kids all the time, but in the last several years sewing started hurting my back.

The reason that I finally got with it and made her dress last week was because she was in a desperate situation! More than a year ago our pastor's daughter made several cute little dresses to sell at flea-markets. She had bought brightly colored girls T-shirts and then sewed a coordinated colored print material on the bottom for the skirt. As a gift to my granddaughter she sent a pink dress to her by me. It had a pink printed skirt with teddy bears on it. And my grandbaby just LOVED it! A few months ago she go so attached to it that she would pull it out of the dirty laundry basket before her Mama could wash it! She wanted to wear it every day when she was home. It was getting pretty worn out and...smelly! ha In fact baby girl had nicknamed it her "Stinky Bear Dress". She would BEG for it when it was being laundered!

The Bear Dress was getting a little small...and pretty wornout... so I told her that I would make her another dress. I had some Little Mermaid material at home. I also found a little tank-type T-shirt to match it. It didn't take me half a day to make her another dress.

Here's where I got the name The 1...2...3 Dress.

The first step was to take the material and cut off enough for the length of the skirt....which could be short or long. I made this one sort of in-between.


Second step was sew the "back" seam of the skirt together and hem the skirt on the machine.


Third step was to gather the "top" of the skirt and sew to the bottom of the T-shirt.


Voila! One! Two! Three! There you have it!


On Saturday we went by to pick up baby girl to go on church bus visitation with us. Usually the first thing out of her mouth after she gives me a hug is "GanMamma....what did you bring me?" Sometimes it's nothing but a hug. ha Most times it is some little something ranging from a toy or a video to a piece of bubble gum. I had the Little Mermaid dress behind my back on a hanger. When she asked me what I had brought for her I pulled the dress out from behind me and gave it to her. She was SO happy! She said, "Oh Wow!" Then she hugged and kissed the dress. THEN she hugged and kissed me. :) And she insisted on wearing the dress...plus her princess tiara.....on visitation that day. She was the main attraction of every place we went! (Smile)

Now I think she wants a Princess Dress to go with her Mermaid Dress. We'll see! But it would probably be a good idea to have two so that her Mama won't have such a tug-of-war with her at laundry time! ha

Could be that some of you have a Little Mermaid or a Princess in your life that needs a new play dress! Try this! It's as easy as 1..2..3!

"Sewing" precious memories!

Marilyn

10 comments:

Faye said...

Marilyn,This is so cute.You are so talented! Hope you are having a good day! Blessings, Faye

Leah Adams said...

Ok, Ganmama, where is mine? How adorable!! You should make you and she one to match!

Leah

Beth Herring said...

Precious idea! I have some little granddaughters myself and could do this!

Janet said...

I enjoyed reading this,it brought a smile to my face. If I get a Granddaughter this time, I can sew her one also, but I would have to use your sewing machine. See you Tuesday morning.

Janet

Evelyn said...

That is so funny about the dress! A friend in another state makes those for her granddaughters. They sounded so cute, but I'd never seen one before. So.... how did you attach the skirt to the t-shirt? putting right sides together? or.. laying the t-shirt on top of the skirt and top stitching? (or both - ha) I was thinking it would look cute if it looked like the t-shirt was out on top of the skirt. It's kinda hard to tell by the pic... but it looks like you've done some top-stitching.

Leola said...

The 1-2-3 dress looks darling. I've seen women wear dresses like that too. Neat idea. Have a nice day.

Love, Leola

Yolanda said...

Marilyn,

How f-u-n!! My little granddaugher is all over "High School Musical". I may need to purchase some material and a sewing machine. ;-)

Love YOU,
Yolanda

Susan said...

Oh, what a precious dress.

I used to sew, it's been many years. I need to get back and make my grands some dresses.

Thanks for stopping by the other day, I appreciate your prayers and then rejocing with us.

You are such a blessing!

Have a great weekend♥

Beverly Wooley said...

That's really cute, Marilyn. I know you must have loved Leah's response to it!

I've got a closet full of fabric just "aging" and waiting to be sewn. So much fabric - so little time!

Joyful said...

This is so sweet Marilyn. What an adorable story...and dress. I loved that she wore her Princess tiara too. (Having a "Princess" theme myself, I can so relate to her royal heart!)

You have many talents...sewing, speaking, writing, giving at Sav-a-Life, baking etc... Continue to use them all for His glory.

Hugs,
Joy