An Old Favorite Recreated

Before Malia was born, a neighbor of mine decided it was time to get rid of all her daughters’ out grown clothes and let me dig through her stash before the yard sale. This particular neighbor had by her own admission gone a bit overboard with clothes and there were a ton to choose from. She also has very similar tastes to my own and I thought nearly everything she had was darling. Malia had a number of cute things that she ended up really liking, among which was a dark red dress with a long sleeved velvet bodice, a satin skirt with a sheer overlay and a sash to make a big bow in the back. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to wear it as much as she would have liked because it was the right size in the summer and was just too hot for the weather. She tried to cram her body into it this past fall, but the long sleeves were only down to her elbows and the only reason she could even get the thing on was because it was stretch velvet. And yet she didn’t want to let it go. In order to get her to give it away, I had to take a picture of it and tell her I could try and make her another one like it.

When it came time to sew a Christmas dress, I let Malia pick the pattern. She chose one that looked remarkably like that old red dress and when we picked out fabric, she was adamant that it be dark red. The result looks remarkable like the original except it has short sleeves to make it a bit more all-weather friendly.

Malia has already informed me that she intends to wear this dress until it is way too short.