Dance lessons for my grandmother

A few years ago, my grandmother gave me a bag with the words “Here, some old clothes. Cut them up and use them as fabrics!” Being impatient as ever, I immediately looked through it. The majority of items were already taken apart. There was a cocktail dress made from a very heavy black silk, a blue and gold type of jacket, a few other pieces I have forgotten about, a Sari and, at the very bottom, a light cotton dress. Watching me pull it out, my grandmother remarked “Oh, I had forgotten about that. I wore that to my dance lessons when I was a young girl.” Considering that she is over eighty now, this must have been somewhere around 1950.

Later, I carefully tried the dress on. It is in very good condition, considering my grandmother is over eighty years old, but just about too small for me. That’s not surprising, I’m almost a head taller than my grandmother. Ever since, I have kept the dress planning to make myself a version of it some day. I think now might be a good time.

The dress is made from a very thin cotton in “misty rose” (according to Wikipedia). The fabric is decorated with little black flowers, consisting of three embroidered dots each. The material is quite sheer so there must have been a second dress worn underneath. That one was unfortunately not passed on to me so I will have to improvise.

The dress is fitted loosely, except around the waist, has ruffled sleeves and I think it is meant to reach  the middle of the calf (tea length). It’s only knee length on me but then I am distinctly too tall for it anyway.

So, the plan is to make a copy of the pattern (WITHOUT destroying the dress of course), then enlarging it and making myself a copy. I will try to keep as many of the details as possible. I think finding a matching fabric might be the first real challenge. This is going to be somewhat of a long term project but then, the one thing I definitely have at the moment is plenty of time.