27 December 2006

A Fashionable Christmas

For some strange reason I decided the girls really needed to have fancy Christmas outfits to wear to church on Sunday. I decided this on Friday afternoon. I was envisioning simple black skits with elastic waists to go with some red shirts that they already had. I was reckoning without Girly-Girl, my 7 year-old built in fashion consultant.

Me: Oh look. Here's some $2/yard plain cotton cloth.

GG: (looking disappointed, she wanders over to the fabric bolts while I hunt for elastic. Suddenly her face lights up.) Ooooooo! Look at THIS! It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

Silly-Head: (rushing to GG's side) Ooooooo! That's SOFT!

Me: (Trying to be indulgent) Well, that is rather pretty…

Me: (looking at the $13/yard price.) AAaaaaaaaack!!!!

Clerk: (Snicker, snicker)

Me: (employing quick diversionary tactics) Let's see what else there is before we make a final choice.

All of us: (fingering various fabrics) Mumble, hmmm, Scooby Doo!!! Pink Fur! Mumble, mumble.

Suddenly…

GG: Ooooohhhhh, Mom!

SH: Ooooooo, It's SOFT!

Me: (Strolling over to examine the gorgeous black crinkled faux-suede fabric) Ooooo. It IS soft and pretty and (looking at the price) affordable. Grab it, Girly-girl, It's perfect!

GG and SH beam so brightly that the clerk dons her sunglasses.

Me: (After having the fabric cut to length) Well, that about does it, ladies. Let's go.

GG: But Mo-o-om. What about the rest of it?

Me: What "rest of it"?

We left the store with yards of fabric, elastic, red ribbon, red ruffle trim and two pair of pretty black dress shoes. Once home, I went upstairs and started cutting. Girly-Girl followed me up to make sure I was doing it right.

GG: You're going to put the ribbon here and the the red ruffle there, aren't you?

Me: (snip, snip) Uh-huh.

GG: ...and can you put a slit up the back? Long skirts need a slit.

Me: (measure, snip, snip) Uh-huh.

GG: ...and can you make us shawls out of the leftover fabric?

Me: (measuring some more and realizing that I didn't buy enough ribbon, then averting a temper tantrum - mine - by discovering a roll of perfect ribbon in my storage cabinet. Three cheers for packratting!) Uh-huh.

GG: ...and can you...

Me: (giving her "the look") Isn't it time for you to go downstairs and make something yourself?

GG: Christmas Cards!!! (She bounces down the stairs)

Me: Whew!

GG: (from far away in the distant recesses of the kitchen) Mo-o-om! How do you spell______?

Me: sigh

At any rate, I actually made it through the sewing process with no major screw-ups and no swearing AND they were finished in plenty of time.

Well, there was one itty-bitty boo-boo; I measured the girls three (count 'em!), THREE times and still managed to make Silly-head's skirt a tad too large. Fortunately, I'm a whiz with safety-pins!

I think the final results are quite nice, don't you?

5 comments:

Carole Burant said...

Dearest Groovy...wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!! A couple of days late but I'm just now catching up with everybody. I do hope you had a lovely Christmas and that Santa was good to you! You did an excellent job on the girls' skirts...they look so beautiful in them:-) Tell them they make very lovely models!! Much love xox

Anonymous said...

they are beautiful. I would like to add you to my homeschool blogroll here if you don't mind.

groovyoldlady said...

I'm honored, Suni...Add away!

Anonymous said...

Aww, what darlings (the girls AND the skirts). You did a great job (on the skirts and the girls...)

Ballpoint Wren said...

Beautiful, beautiful girls! You do good work, Groovy.

Oh, yeah, and the clothes look lovely, too!