The “Mayor’s Wife” Dress

Once upon a time, Michael was the mayor of our little home town. He served as mayor for six years. During his time as mayor, he got a lot accomplished! He is to this day still the record holder for winning by the largest margin in our city’s history, and is one of the most successful mayors in our towns history.

Here’s a picture of us the day he was sworn in as mayor. Look how little my babies were!

Being the mayor of a town, working a full time job, and having young kids at home, is no small feat. There were meetings, and dinners, and more meetings. Somehow Michael did it, and we as a family think back on that time positively. Yes, it was hard sometimes, but we got through and were better because of it.

Here’s the proclamation that was issued to Michael at his last city council meeting as mayor.

Here we are, on that last day.

Although we had a positive experience, I was certain that my days of being “Mayor’s Wife” were over! Little did I know I had one more “Mayor’s Wife” event.

The city manager, who Michael worked with during his time as mayor was retiring. We had a dinner to attend, and we would be attending it as “former mayor”, and “former mayor’s wife”. Big deal? Maybe. Time to sew the perfect “former mayor’s wife” dress? For sure!

I decided to go with a Jackie O style and chose a pattern from my collection. Since the pattern is a reissued pattern, it had fun facts on the pattern directions.

I chose this fabric that I had leftover from the dress that I previously made for my niece Jenna. (See blog post “Make It Work”) It was a simple pattern with a few darts.

Sewing it up. I had a limited time to make it, which seems to be the way my life has been going lately!

AND because I was trying to rush I sewed the sleeve on inside out. UGH!

Sewing break for a mayoral picture.

Here’s Michael with city manager Darrell Fonseca, at Darrell’s last meeting as city manager. The wall of mayor’s is behind them. I circled Michael’s Grandfather, Vito Bianculli, who was mayor in the 1970’s. The arrow is pointing to Michael’s mayor picture. Guess public service runs in the family.

Although I had an event to attend, I was finding out that it is hard to do a photo shoot for your blog in the middle of someone else’s event! So back yard pictures of my “Mayor’s Wife” dress were going to have to do!

I decided to change it up and move to the front yard. I was hoping this color looked as good on me as it did Jenna. I had big fabric shoes to fill. But now we have matching dresses!

I loved the way the neck line of this dress turned out. It was something new for me, but I am feeling less intimidated when I’m taking on a new sewing technique. Could it be confidence? HA, maybe a little but, I literally woke up the other morning and thought, “do I even know how to make clothes?”. Doubt gets to everyone.

Looks like a dress to me, so I guess I can make clothes! HA!

And of course I had a little helper for this photo shoot. Although all Pinkie did was sniff around in the flowers.

I decided to take my photo shoot out of the yard, and to the City Council chambers. I felt like a stranger in a place where I had once spent so much time. I guess the word I’m looking for is bittersweet. I look back fondly on those days, but am glad to move on from it too.

The 1960’s style of the building matched my dress. I’ll keep this building in mind for future 60’s sews.

Trying something new can be scary. Michael running for mayor, (and trust me, it was during turbulent times for our town, but that’s a story for another time.) was definitely out of all of our comfort zones.

With each new sew I do, doubt still creeps in, but I don’t let it get to me as much as I used to.

Do your best with whatever you decide to take on, you might be more successful at it than you could ever imagine!

Don’t forget faithful readers, you don’t need the Facebook link to find me. You can go to sewingwithgrandma.com anytime, and read some old favorites!

As for me, onto the next!