Easter Fashion

As I return to the blogging world, I'm going to post a few stories of things that have happened during my 6 month hiatus.  Here is one that just happened in the last few weeks.  -Mama Hen
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I could write a sonnet

About your Easter bonnet

And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter parade

-Irving Berlin

I loved Easter as a kid. Not only was it a holiday filled with colored eggs and candy, but it also was the one-day each year when I would get a brand new outfit to wear to church. I was the third of six children and money was always tight.   I spent most of my life in hand-me-downs, so getting that new dress, those new shoes – sometimes even a spring coat, hat, gloves and purse – was so special.

I wanted to maintain that tradition for my girls, too.

So a couple months ago I was stressing over the fact that – with no job in sight – I wouldn’t be able to afford Easter dresses for Libby Doodle Doo and Little Zo Peep – certainly nothing like the co-ordinating silk shantung confections that they wore last year. Such a purchase seemed so frivolous these days.  

And then – as I was going through a bin of size 2T Spring/Summer clothes put away when Zo Peep outgrew them -- I made an amazing discovery.  I found not One, not Two but SIX fancy dresses that had never been worn by the Peep and still had their tags on.  

Now I can’t tell you why I bought so many dresses for Zo Peep way back then. Maybe I was insane, maybe prescient -- perhaps somewhere deep inside I knew that I would need a new dress for the Peep's little sister someday.  Who knows?

I had the Doodle try on the 6 possible Easter dresses and found 2 that fit her perfectly.  I picked a cotton floral one with a touch of eyelet and a bit of tulle underneath to give the dress some extra pouf.  The fabric is really retro and reminded me of curtains (or maybe it was a table cloth) in my grandma's kitchen when I was a toddler myself.

Once I had the Doodle’s Easter dress resolved, I brainstormed about what to do for Zo Peep. And then I remembered that when Zo Peep was 3 1/2,  I stumbled upon a "Going Out of Business" sale at a high end girls' clothing shop.  With prices from 75 to 90% off, I decided to buy her First Holy Communion Dress -- a dress she would not wear for another 4 years.   I had no idea what size the Peep would be in 2nd grade, so I bought THREE dresses that day -- size 6, 6x and 7.  I figured I would find good use for the dresses I ultimately did not use.

Fast forward to early April, 2009.   

I found the garment bag with the Communion dresses (I had also bought a Communion veil and gloves -- more things that I had forgotten about).  The size 6 dress fit Zo Peep beautifully.  It was ivory silk sheath  with just a hint of green and lilac at the bodice and hem -- totally appropriate for Easter.

So with dresses -- purchased in 2006 and 2004 --  my girls were able to wear their New Easter outfits this year.

They both looked charming.