Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Thanks Mom...

Mama's Losin' It


WRITER'S WORKSHOP PROMPT:
Memories of Mom


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Of course I have many, many memories of my mom (still making more too thankfully) but for some reason the first thought that came to my mind when I read this prompt was...
Dresses.


My mom was a master seamstress (I say was because she rarely sews anymore). She made all of our clothes growing up. All. of. them. And she did an amazing job at it I must say. You should see how stylish we were in our old home movies. We were superfly baby. SUPER-FLY.

I especially loved Easter because that meant new
(often matching) dresses hand made by Mom for us to wear to church. Fabulous.

My mom sewed like this until we began to get older and needed (NEEDED) the mall in our lives.

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And it was at the mall in oh so posh Scottsdale that another fond dress memory took place. It was here that my mom and I went to look for a dress for my senior prom. We found the dress pictured above (this is a picture of a picture that my mom emailed me today. Seems her scanner is broken too) the details don't show in the picture (btw, is that the ugliest background ever or what?) but this dress was sparkly, chic, and gorgeous and both my mom and I fell in love with it the minute I put it on.

I remember it was over our budget but my mom wanted to buy it for me anyway. This was something that rarely happened and it made me feel special that she would do that for me (warm fuzzy time).

And on a side note:

I was not a froofy prom dress girl. See exhibit B, the above picture of my junior prom. Notice no froof. I liked sleek simplicity. No froofy, poofy for me. No siree bob (not that there's anything wrong with froofy, poofy if that's what your heart so desires. It's just not for me. That's all)

Which brings us to another dress moment.

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They say that every girl dreams of her wedding day. Well not me apparently because I was pretty nonchalant about the whole wedding planning business. "Whatever" seemed to be my motto (but I'll save that story for another post). So I'm very lucky that my mom used her keen eye to find a large, boxie wedding gown (much too big for me) on the sales rack of a bridal boutique, then immediately see the potential in its beautiful beaded fabric. We snatched up that dress, took it to a seamstress and had it made into a gorgeous gown just for me (with not too much froof. Small bell, no train...you know).

I've said it before, I love being a girl (you can be girly without liking froof) and I owe much of this to the example of my mother who, from my earliest memories, made it fun to get dressed up and be pretty.

P.S. Why eighties hair, why? Why'd you have to go and ruin all of my pictures? Why?

19 comments:

Juniper Saltus said...

Awww... those are all very nice memories! Thank you for sharing the with us. (And your 80's hair, too LOL)

I especially love your wedding dress. Very gorgeous!

Unknown said...

Oh wow! You're mom is amazing! I wish I could make all of E's clothing by hand too but I can't figure out how to use the sewing machine for the life of me.

Still, I think it's pretty neat that you and your mom share so many wonderful "dress" moments. I also love your wedding dress. It's much more special than the usual store bought ones :)

Karen & Gerard Zemek said...

I am not a froofy, poofy girlie either, except on my wedding day, the bottom of my dress poofed but I really liked it. The top wasn't poofy at all, just the bottom part.
Nice memories of you mother too.

Visiting from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. We used this prompt too.

Amanda said...

My mom is going to make my wedding dress (someday) she made my senior prom and homecoming dress too, and the dress I wore to graduation!

Sewing with her was frustrating but fun at the same time!

Unknown said...

Your Mom sounds like a wonderful woman! What a great post! I love that she made your wedding dress out of something horrible. You look pretty. Even with your eighties hair! Love it!

Julie@My5monkeys said...

your mom sounds like my mom with the sewing and great pictures from the past.

Marcie Ashton said...

I love that you wrote about such a seemingly simple thing like dresses. Then I scrolled down to the wedding dress and was reminded just how important a dress (or at least the reason for the dress) can be. What wonderful memories.

paige said...

I love these memories. I'd love to be able to sew. I'd have loved for my mom to make my clothes, too. I love all of your dresses, btw. Nice. :)

Anonymous said...

Love this! Especially the clothes! Thanks for visiting my blog and I really hope that when my Miss Moo is 16 she will be like your daughter!!! Thanks for giving me hope!

Emmy said...

What great memories! It is nice when mom's make those sacrifices just to make us really happy.
I was more whatever when it came to my wedding too :)

Panamamama said...

Wow! Wish I could sew like that! You guys were superfly! 80's hair ruined many of my pics too! :)

The Cranes said...

I have similar memories of dresses with my mom, who also sewed all my clothes--including my wedding dress. I should do a post to honor her sometime--but first I have to get all those old photos in digital format!

Kim Lehnhoff said...

I'm not all all poufy/froufy, either - though my mother tried for at least 25 years to dress me like that.

Erin said...

Oh my mom made EVERYTHING for us when we were kids. I got the polo shirts with hearts on them and the kids laughed because it wasn't a lizard thing....but I wore them proudly...like you said, until you needed the mall. And to this day, I hate shopping, probably because I never had to do it!

cheri said...

oh, you look beautiful in your wedding picture. it's neat that your mom's a seamstress. my grandma was, but i dont remember her sewing anything for us....

thanks for stopping by my blog :)

Jessica B Photography said...

Your hair makes up for the lack of froof in your dresses. :) My mom sewed as well. My oldest sister has some very lovely very poofy prom/homecoming dresses with shoes dyed to match the fabric. Sweet! She even made Oldest Sister's wedding dress and they hand sewed beads onto the lace. Yeah, I'm glad I'm the third and by the time I got to the Prom & wedding stage it was ok for me to buy a dress. I'm not a seamstress (I just typed sewer, thinking sew-er, and then realized it said s-ew-er, as in pipes) but sometimes I wish I was, like around Halloween...

Jessica B Photography said...

I love your mom's hair by the way.

conny said...

My Internet has been off since Friday so I was just able to check your blog. Thank you for the nice things you wrote and for bringing back good memories for me as well. I am so blessed to have you for my daughter. (My sewing machine is going again sewing tiny baby clothes for NEWBORNS IN NEED - Very rewarding service) LOL

4boyzmdmom said...

You brought back great memories for me, too--my mom sewed all our clothes too and I still remember how longingly the other girls looked at the beautiful Easter dresses my mom used to make me. Their store-bought frocks just didn't compare! Every Easter I still wish my mom would make me a dress! She also made my wedding dress--copied a dress that I tried on and LOVED. She just drew a picture of it and then made it--super talented!!