My sister, who is my marketing guru, has been pushing me to do something like this for a while but I just wasn't sure I could; but then I had an interesting experience last week. As my daughter's 8th birthday approaches I have been making her not one, but two white dresses for her upcoming LDS baptism. One is for the baptismal font itself and will get wet, the other is for her to change into afterwards. As both of these dresses will have special significance, I wanted to make them rather than buy them from a store with the hope that one day the font dress will become a family heirloom, something that will be passed from my daughter to her sister and then onto their daughters. I wanted the second dress to be more a reflection of my daughter's personality and individuality. The other reason I wanted to make them was because my daughter is a built like I was as a child, tall and skinny, which means that anything I buy at the store for her doesn't fit--by the time its long enough the neck is gaping, the waist is double the size it needs to be, and the dress ends up looking more like a tent than a gown-- if I'm going to spend that much time working on getting her dress to fit, I may as well just start from scratch.
Well all my great plans to sew these dresses were nearly ruined 6 months ago when I was diagnosed with stage III Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Everyone kept telling me I would need to "simplify" my life while I underwent bi-weekly chemotherapy treatments and reserved what little energy I had left for my children. This meant freezer meals, condensed errands, online purchasing of anything I possibly could, etc... I was afraid all of this would also mean no time or energy for designing and sewing these dresses. I tried to make the best of it, spending hours online with my daughter "window shopping" for dresses, but I was sad about missing the experience of sewing the dresses myself. So in January I discovered I was feeling pretty good for a change and decided I needed a project. Long story short I decided to start a white dress for my daughter, hoping that by spreading it out over 3 months I would be able to get it done. As it turns out, having something to do made me feel better than just lying around the house. I finished that dress in just one week.
Since then I have done numerous other projects to keep me busy while resting and staying home, away from people and germs with my compromised immune system. I have managed to sew both dresses for my daughter's baptism with weeks to spare. I had some finish hand-stitching to do on these dresses and so I took them with me to chemo last week. There I was, in a recliner, hooked up to all sorts of cytotoxic medications to fight my cancer, one white dress hanging from my IV stand, the other being worked on in my lap and someone just HAD to ask. I told her the story of these dresses and she told me she had a granddaughter getting baptized in September and would I consider making her a dress? I was flattered and that is when it occurred to me that this skill my mother taught me was something I could do for others. At a time when so many are doing for me and my family, its nice to feel like I can still do things, especially things that I enjoy.
So thanks to my pushy, talented sister, this store is growing and I'm really excited about what's going to happen next!
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| Her "after" dress... look how perfect these shoes are from online! Hope its pink enough for this girl! |
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| Hand sewing some details while getting my chemo this week... silver (or maybe bright pink) lining to this cancer mess. |
