Gonna dress you up in my love

You already know how much I adore being able to dress my girls in clothing made or purchased for me when I was a child. I even wrote about the Vintage Collection here.

This Christmas season brings another chapter of the Vintage wear to a joyous end. This sweet jumper was designed and sewn by my mother for my older sister a good 40 years ago. Sadly, there's no picture we can find of her in the jumper, but here's one for the albums:

Is it wrong to love the little flash of frilly panty combined with the facial expression?

My mother was so very careful about storing our clothing for future generations. I have many dresses, jumpers, pants suits (it was the 70's people!), coats and crochet wear that was made by her, by my grandmother, or by their collaboration. Since my mother wasn't one to do the standard "roll, cut, and decorate cookies" each year - remember we did the Italian cookie version - this dress shows her hidden whimsy. She knew a little girl needed a little bit of gingerbread man in her life.

Fast forward 30 (or so, ahem) years and we get:

Jazz so sweet at 3!

with a 6 year old Zydeco whose facial expression is the same now as then!

When we first tried it on Jazz, the dress barely covered her bottom - apparently my sister and I were much shorter or the styles were much different! We simply let out as much of the hem as possible and added a row of red ric rac.

Another five years gets us:

Irish Jig gets her turn.
Of course, she thinks Nana made the dress "just for me".

After this season, the dress will get a thorough cleaning and maintenance check (all buttons, seams, etc) and will be stored as part of the growing Vintage Collection for future girls in this family line.  I really prefer the more vintage styles of dress for this age.  I don't rush them into jeans and sparkles just yet.  Okay, I really never rush the sparkles because it's just not me.  But the jeans are - maybe too much!