Seeking Susie

I hope you have all had a wonderful New Years and that your Christmas was merry and bright.  Mine sure was.

I would love to post pictures, but guess what?

I did not take a single picture of our big family gathering.

I know, right?  Completely an epic fail!!

After everyone left and I realized we didn’t take our usual pictures, I was devastated.  How could I, the family genealogy freak, forget to take pictures?  Well, for once I just enjoyed myself and didn’t worry about the stuff I was supposed to do, I just did what I wanted to.  It was great in a way, on the other hand, I sure wish I had some pictures from the night.

Other than that it was a lovely time and now since I have delivered my last gift, I would like to share with you what I made for my siblings and some cousins.

A while back while I was in Texarkana, my cousin Nedra gave each cousin at a cousin’s party a dress that had belonged to my great-grandmother, Mollie Davis Harris.  Which meant she gave my Dad the dress and then I talked him into giving it to me.  Thanks Dad!

Then on another trip, she had found an old suitcase of my grandfather’s and inside was my grandmother’s square dancing dress.  She gave it to me.

When my Aunt Jane passed away I asked my Uncle Charlie to save me one of her shirts and he did, so I got her shirt.

Then on yet another trip, Nedra found another box of Mollie’s dresses while cleaning and she graciously gave me them to me.

I had great plans to make a quilt but the fabrics were so old and stained, I mean my great-grandmother Mollie, she worked in these dresses, so I had to come up with something different.

I took all the dresses to my mother-in-laws house and we had great fun putting them on a form and I took a picture of each dress.  I wanted a good picture before I cut them up.

Here are the dresses and shirts:

Then I saw an idea on Pinterest where a girl had made a flower on canvas out of scrapbook paper.  I decided to do this with the fabric from the dresses.

For four weeks I would get the dresses ready to cut, and I just couldn’t do it.

Finally, the weekend before Christmas I decided I had better suck it up and get busy or these gifts would not get done.  Cutting those dresses was one of the hardest things I have ever done and I don’t even know why.

Then I spent two complete days and nights sitting at the kitchen counter cutting and pasting these flowers together.

This my friends is the finished product of my Ancestor’s clothing.  These will always be near and dear to my heart!

I had originally wanted to make the ones that I made for my brothers a fish, but I thought that ended up looking too childish, so my son Michael ended up with that, he loves it, and it is proudly hung in his bedroom.  Everyone just ended up with a flower, boy or girl.

Here is a close up of the fish.

And here is a close up of one of the flowers.

I fully intend to make more for some of my other cousins, I still have plenty of material left.

So, when you look at your ancestors old clothing and think there is nothing else to be done with them, think again people!!!

These flowers will go a long way and now all of us can share in the dresses.

Booyah!

Susie