The story of a dress

August 2020

Before Lola II and Mr M's wedding, more than seven years ago, I persuaded Lola to let me make her a dress from a pattern she'd chosen. It was supposed to be made from stretchy fabric but we couldn't find any at the time, so I made it from different fabric and it was nice but a bit difficult to get in and out of because it wasn't stretchy. I blogged about it at the time.

It was such a nice pattern that I thought I'd make one for myself, and found some stretchy fabric and spent one solitary holiday many moons ago in Harrogate making the dress. I remember wearing it on just two occasions, mainly because I don't ever wear dresses except at parties and I don't go to parties any more.

I can't remember how it came about, but I offered to make another one from the same pattern for Sister D. This went well, but I have a feeling that almost immediately it was too small for her. However, along with both Lola II and myself, Sister D has lost a load of weight, so I wouldn't be surprised if it fits her again now (except it was quite a warm, heavy fabric so too hot for the summer).

So now we all three sisters had one of these dresses, but Lola II's wasn't stretchy so, having got so good at this particular pattern, I offered to make her a better one. We found and ordered the fabric on the Internet, but when it arrived for some reason it got put in a drawer and I didn't come back to it for 18 months. When I did, I discovered that the supplier had made a mistake with the order and there wasn't enough material, but much too late to return for a refund and the fabric design was no longer available.

More time went past, but this was on my conscience, so eventually Lola II and I managed to choose and order some more fabric, which I paid for this time, and I got started on another dress. I reached about two thirds of the way through before it got put in a drawer and neglected. Until now.

I reached the point in lockdown when I was at long last ready to tackle a more time-consuming job that didn't require a tradesman and wasn't part of the LTRP. A little while ago Lola II concocted a plan whereby we would all self-isolate for two weeks and then she would drive mum up to stay with me for a night as a treat. It occurred to me that it would be lovely if I could finish the dress in time, as a surprise.

I got started with working out where I'd got up to, then sewed the first seam which then needed to be ironed open (this is routine for dressmaking). Somehow I managed to get everything completely wrong and melted a hole in the stupid thing.

So after a number of exasperated expletives, that's where I left the situation and put the half-finished dress back in the drawer. Lola II and mum did come to visit, and it was a lovely visit, and I showed them the mess I'd made. I tried to give Lola II the dress I'd previously made for myself from the same pattern but she is a different shape from me and it didn't look right on her. Instead, we agreed that I will patch up the hole which is in an unobtrusive place on the waistline at the back, and we'll call it 'individual' and 'unique' and nobody will notice unless their attention is drawn to it. This is why I like Lola II more than your 'normal' person who would never accept a home-made dress seven years late with a patched-up hole in it.