Easter Dresses

As a child I loved Easter for two reasons. Dyeing the eggs and the picnic and hunt that always followed and a new dress to wear for Sunday. Dad would always try to find a new park or lovely wooded area for us to go to for the picnic and Easter egg hunt. Mom would always make a new spring dress for me. There would usually be lace, or ribbon or rick rack on the dress and more often than not...lots of ruffles. I am sure it became a greater challenge as more and more girls were added to the family. I don't know when she started making the dresses for Easter, but if it were me, by the time there were 5 girls in the family I'd have to start sewing the day after I got Christmas decorations put away. One year she decided to make us all matching dresses. I believe they were lavender gingham. This was fine with me, I was the oldest. But in the Thurston family except for the occasional new dress, you wore hand me down clothes. I am sure my youngest sister Cheryl was really tired of that dress by the time she outgrew all five of them.

My first 3 children were boys and although I did sew for them, the T-shirts and shorts didn't cut it for me. I longed to make a frilly dress. Then I had Afton and enjoyed a few delightful years of little girl dress making.

With 8 grandsons and no granddaughters I have had a bit of a dry spell. Every Easter I look at the cute little girls in their frilly dresses as they prance into church and sigh. This year I decided to do something fun. Christian has been dating a girl who has two daughters, ages 4 and 7. I decided to make them sundresses and Afton brought over her sewing machine to help sew and make the process faster. After making the dresses, I decided to make their Barbie dolls matching dresses.