The Past Repeating Itself

“In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, bridge to our future.”~Alex Haley

My cousin Melanie had an important event coming up. Her son Jake had joined the Army and would be graduating from boot camp in May. We both knew I had the perfect fabric for her event, and Melanie asked if I could make her a special dress for such a special occasion. Of course I could!

Off to my patterns I went, and Melanie picked out this classic from the 1960’s. Time to wrestle some old fabric!

The fabric was, of course, the enormous roll of WWII fabric that Grandpa had bought in surplus long ago. Will I finish off the roll ever? Probably not, but it’s always fun when I get to use it. I was excited about this project!

This particular project had so much meaning. Grandpa had been drafted into the Army during WWII. Here’s his boot camp photo.

Just for fun and historical accuracy, here is Grandpa’s registration card for the draft.

The war would end and Grandpa never had to go overseas to fight. Who knows how our family would have changed if he had. He was ready to go and fight though. Here he is on the right in his uniform, and his dad, James Bert, in his WWI uniform. My Great-Grandma Sophrona is in between them.

Jake has the army, and military service in his blood, and it goes way back. So you can see that this dress, made with Grandpa’s military fabric, was turning into a very symbolic sew.

The skirt of this dress was very full, good thing I have plenty of fabric.

Another skirt piece.

Marking the darts.

Sewing the darts. I never sew over pins. You could break a needle doing that.

Prepping the facing pieces with interfacing. I always try to use what I have. More often than not I’m piecing it together. It works the same and isn’t wasteful.

For this piece of facing I was out of scraps so it got a solid piece of interfacing.

Sewing the sides of the bodice together.

Sewing the skirt together. You can see how full the skirt will be!

Pinning the skirt to the bodice.

Time for a side zipper! I didn’t have any zippers that would match the fabric, so off the the store I went. Imagine my disappointment when I couldn’t find a matching zipper at the store either!! I chose this beige one. It would have to do.

Hemming, hemming, and hemming all around the skirt.

The dress needed a finishing touch. I had Grandma Doris’ sewing box, and inside were some labels. I chose this one, since the dress was “handmade for a special little girl”, and a special occasion! Traditionally labels go on the back of garments, but I sewed this one on the front, to be near Melanie’s heart.

The day had come and off to Georgia Melanie flew. I had just been in Georgia for Mia’s graduation for her Master’s degree. Not sure why our family were having Georgia graduations, but I am sure that it’s not a coincidence. What does it mean? Only the universe knows.

I had previously made a cross body bag for Melanie out of the WWII fabric. She had taken it along with her.

Melanie looked great in her dress! She chose to accessorize it with a beige belt. It looked super stylish!

Army green looks fantastic on Melanie!

Enormous congratulations to Jake! Here’s the proud mother/son selfie! She matches him perfectly!

I was so honored to make this dress for Melanie. For her to be able to pay tribute our family’s past, while celebrating it’s future, is a wonderful thing to be part of. Thank you Melanie, for letting me be part of it!

But after all, that’s what cousins are for!

Congratulations again Jake! We’re all so proud of you! All of our love and good thoughts will be with you wherever you go!

As for me, onto the next!