One way that I express love for my daughters is through sewing them matching, handmade dresses for special occasions. I realize there will be a time in the near future when this sort of thing won't be appreciated. So, I happily stitched them some simple cotton sundresses this Easter that can be enjoyed at least for a summer.
No matter how busy my mother was on the sprawling family farm, she still found time to sew special dresses for me from time to time. The most recent projects I recall her stitching were the flower girl dresses that she made for my nieces on the occasion of my wedding.
I treasure the grainy old photos of my mother when she was a young child, dressed in the simple cotton dresses that her mother sewed. These dresses, during the 1930s or early 1940s, would likely have been made from flour sack or feed sack fabric. I can barely make out the delicate floral prints shown in the photos. My grandmother sewed nearly all of her girls' outfits when they were young, often making a pair for the two sisters like I do now. Mom told me that Grandma could sew just about any garment without needing a pattern or directions. I am especially impressed that she included details like collars, contrasting bands and extra decorative buttons.
My grandmother's ingenuity and my mother's untimely death from cancer a decade ago are both influences behind the Flour Sack Mama blog.