For Mama and Lauren

My Mother is the very best seamstress I have ever known. Bar none. Yet according to her, her Mother was the best seamstress she ever knew. I remember watching Mama sew when I was a kid. She never struggled with it, or if she did, I never saw it.

In the 70's, Mama and Daddy started attending "Cocktail Parties". These were fancy events where you didn't want to be "seen wearing the same thing twice". Given our limited funds, Mama made her dresses.

Flash forward to 2006....

My eldest daughter, Lauren is getting ready to go to prom. We have shopped every store in a 50 mile radius for something "no one else has". No luck. I'm telling Mama the problems we're having and she says she wants to send Lauren something. One week later, one of those "Cocktail" dresses arrives in the mail. Lauren is beside herself! She cant believe that she has a "vintage" dress! I am beside myself because I cant believe that this dress is: 1)not dry rotted and 2)so well made!

We glued rhinestones onto it and added them to the straps (something my Mother had wanted to do but never gotten around to) and Lauren had something no one else had....a vintage gown, and a testament to her Grandmother's talent.