Caroline's Dress

Caroline has a great family tradition of sewing on both sides of her family (her mother excluded... for now). This is a particularly special dress that I am showing y'all today. Caroline's great great grandmother made this.
This dress was on display in Karen's guest bedroom. I just adored it. When Karen handed it to me to take to my house, I was stunned and excited!
I want to put it on Caroline everyday... but I restrain to preserve it. I have loved "twirly dresses" since I was a tiny girl. The wider they flow when you spin, the better. This onr is very twirly. :-)
So, here she is looking all cute in an amazing gift from her great great grandmother (and mostly her grandmother). What a treasure!
Karen sent me a description of the dress in an email and here it is with my notes in red.

My (Karen's) Grandmother Minnie made it. My mother's step-mom. She was a wonderful seamstress. She made men's suits, prom dresses, quilts, tons of clothes, stuffed animals, draperies, even coats for winter. She was phenomenal! She was the one who taught me how to sew when I was 12 (which is a gift to so many through Karen's beautiful quilts and dresses!).

I asked her to make the pink dress for me as she made one for all the other great granddaughters even though I had sons. She laughed about it but she did it. I am so grateful to have it when I see how beautiful Caroline is in it. (Me too!) She made the entire thing by hand stitching the best I can tell (Wow!). The one thing she didn't know about was french heirloom sewing by machine. If she had, she would have done that and saved herself a lot of time. I have the satisfaction of knowing it was made with a lot of love, though.

She sewed most things on an old Singer treadle sewing machine that she probably inherited from her mom. I think she got a brand new SInger Touch and Sew around 1970. You would have loved her, she had a heart of gold!! I'm sure I would have too