Dreams about a dress

In her fancy togs at 3 months

Back when Charlotte was a tiny new born, one of her first visitors was my friend Gis. On the day she visited (in July), the sun was shining, and we all had lunch outside in the garden. She has a couple of little boys, and the children all had a great time running around barefoot on the grass. It was warm!

Gis gave Charlotte a beautiful dress - which, she said, is blatantly something a mum of boys enjoyed the novelty of shopping for, given the less exciting range of boys' clothes available in shops, so she says. I couldn't wait for my legs-still-scrunched-up newborn bundle to be big enough to wear it.

Six months

Now Charlotte has gone and done what all babies do, and reduced her mother to a predictable thing, regularly heard bemoaning how she isn't teeny or tiny any more.

In the last week, she has gone up a size in clothes, meaning that dress is a thing of the past. She has found her toes, too. She likes playing with her feet now, and they seem to be like a new toy to her each time she manages to grab hold of them.

I must confess - for quite a while now, I have had designs on her dress.

3 months

The idea came to me one day at Fancy (lots of good ideas come to me when I am eating cake). Charlotte was sleeping (above) and I was enjoying a blissful half an hour to myself. The conveniently sleeping baby continued to sleep, and so I reached into my bag for my latest crochet project. It was at that point that I realised they (the baby and the crochet) matched! Inspiration had officially hit (in my mind, anyway), the Brilliant Idea grew and grew, until I knew I had to do something about it.

 

Yes, I could pass the dress on, or save it for the unlikely event of another baby girl being born here and in the right season to wear it. But this holds nice memories of Charlotte wearing it, and it is too lovely to languish in a cupboard for years before finally ending up in a charity shop.

I intend to make sure this lovely fabric gets a second life and is seen and appreciated every day. (Notice how I am justifying my intentions of butchering a beautiful little baby dress?)

A couple of friends are coming round later to keep me company and sew (whilst the hubby is out at another almost certainly dull work meeting), and so I am going to see what I can make from one little dress. Watch this space!