About this time every year throughout my childhood, Easter Eve, while my sister and I slept, dreaming of jelly beans and white chocolate bunnies, my mother would be burning the midnight oil, sewing machine whirring away for hours at a time rapidly trying to meet a Sunday morning deadline.
Her two daughters needed Easter Dresses. Nothing was going to prevent her little girls from looking their best in gingham, floral or stripped dresses.
Amid dreams of Easter Bunny gifts and jelly bean hunts, Mom would come and nudge me awake and in my sleepy state I would gingerly try on the dresses in various stages of completion. "Watch the pins," she would warn as I would pull the dress over my head, inevitably getting poked with a pin or two. Then returning to bed I would begin dreaming of the finished dress.
Waking up Easter morning, after discovering the basket of sweet loot, Mom would return to the sewing machine to finish the hems, button holes, zippers and then affix the adornments of bows and buttons. New tights and shoes, possibly left by EB himself, would complete the outfit.
I need to find the photos of these midnight clothing creations to post, but I remember a long, patchwork gingham dress in pinks, yellows and blues. Then there was the green sailor-style dropped waist dress with little red ladybugs in the pattern. Then even in junior high I remember a blue pin-stripped pinafore style dress.
I have no idea just how many dresses Mom made through the years, but I know there were always two very excited girls prancing and twirling their way into church each Easter Sunday! Thanks Mom!
Happy Easter to everyone!
