Dressing My Children

I have a sickness. I like to dress my children in crisp cotton dresses that I’ve made out of high-end quilting fabric. Not just any fabrics, mind you, I must dress them in the most obnoxious colors I can find. I don’t know why I do this. They’re going to hate me one day. In the meantime, however, people are always commenting on how nice my children look in their cute little clothes.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Alice hasn’t really worn much handmade yet — I didn’t start sewing for Helen (basically, I didn’t get my shit together so I’d have time to sew) until she was about 9 months old. So all of the nice handmade stuff is from that time and after. Alice is just now coming into that age, so the hand-me-downs have started. It’s fun, really — to get to revisit beloved outfits I made two years ago.

But I can’t leave it there. No, of course not. I have now ventured into the abyss of making coordinating clothes for my children. My current project? I’ve made Helen a shirt-and-pants outfit out of blue and yellow batiks. Now I’m making Alice a matching dress — so they coordinate but they’re not actually wearing the same design.

If I had twins, would I dress them the same? No. But these children are very obviously not the same age. So I don’t see it as a problem. And Helen thinks it’s really cool to match right now.

Growing up I remember a woman at church who had two daughters about two years apart. She would make dresses for the girls out of the same fabrics, but the dresses would be different patterns (or styles) so that they’d still be unique. And sometimes the mom had a matching dress or blouse, too. I remember thinking that was really neat, and that I hoped I could do that one day.

So while my husband may think it’s weird, I’m getting to fulfill a childhood dream of sorts. Kind of neat, really. And my kids look adorable. Right? RIGHT?!