Working on this dress brought back a lot of memories, but maybe not in the way you would think.

First of all, here’s the before. It isn’t going to look much different than the after, because all I did was hem it. This dress is perfect to wear with boots except that it is midcalf length and just looks frumpy with boots. Hemming is always my first defense against frumpy dresses. A different hemline makes all the difference.

When I thrifted this dress, I immediately fell in love with the pleats on the bodice. I’m a sucker for pintucks.

I’m also a sucker for a great label. That’s the way my Mom spells her name – Gayle! Working on this dress reminded me of my Mom. Not that she had this dress, although I’m sure she probably owned something similar at some point – it’s got that great ’70s feel to it. I’m not even sure what the fabric is – cotton? polyester? a blend? Who knows? All I know is it’s thick and soft, and it’s a pain to iron.

And that’s what started the memories. As I was ironing it by the windows, the sky overcast and looking like rain, the smell of the iron took me back to childhood. It reminded me of sick days, staying home from school, watching Press Your Luck and Card Sharks on TV from a pile of blankets and pillows on the couch (which was also rust colored) while Mom folded laundry and ironed clothes and brought me 7up and played cards with me. I hated missing school – I loved being there, and being with my friends, and I hated getting behind – but staying home was always fun, too. It was such a small memory, but it was so comforting just thinking about it.

A friend and I were talking about this a while back – about things from childhood that are surprisingly comforting. At the time, I had started Tivo’ing The Cosby Show. I said that it just made me happy. She said she felt like that, too – that there were shows and songs and other small things that just brought you back to being a kid, to being taken care of, to a time when our worries and stresses were few and far between. I wonder what it is in our home now that BB and BG will remember, what will be comforting reminders of when they were little and were taken care of by us?

So the original hem of this dress was a blind hem that was hand sewn. I have never really hand sewn anything (unless cross-stitch counts, another memory from childhood), and this looks pretty difficult.

I mean, you can barely even see the stitches. I am impressed.

I do have a blind-hem stitch on my sewing machine. :) Not sure how blind the hem will be since the closest thread I have to “rust” is red.

Ah well, not bad.

And the dress is now not frumpy, either.

A warm fuzzy dress that will be comforting for the fall and winter ahead.

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This post is part of a 31 day series. Find all the posts in this series here.

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