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