Sometimes people send me really interesting things. I’ve had fabulous fabric<\/a>, vintage goodies<\/a> and various natty novelties in the post – but I’d never received any frilly frocks – until now.<\/p>\n

A whole box of frilly frocks arrived the other day. They’re vintage of course, dating from the 1950s and 1960s, and travelled all the way from America. Someone for whom I am making a set of dolls sent them – she wore them as a child.<\/p>\n

I knew they were coming, but until I opened the box of frocks I had no idea what treasures lay within…These little dresses are just so<\/em> of their time!<\/p>\n

I remember Nanna (my Dad’s mother, who lived with us when I was growing up) often telling me how happy she was that she had granddaughters.Nanna loved and treasured my sister and I and having had no daughters of her own, she relished<\/em> dressing us up in similarly lacy, girly, frilly frocks.Nanna used to make dresses for us on her old hand-cranked Singer sewing machine. I remember being mortified more than once<\/em> as she yanked up my skirt to show off to her friends the bit of handiwork she was most proud of: my matching frilly knickers.<\/p>\n

There are no matching knickers with these frocks and they have labels, so were shop-bought. But the person who wore them may<\/em> have had habits similar to my sister…<\/p>\n

I was the sort of child who could be dressed up and would remain in the same pristine state: my sister was not. My mum always joked that if she turned away for a matter of seconds, my sister’s frock would be stained when she turned back.<\/p>\n

There are stains on these frocks. Little girls who dribbled and smeared food with grubby fingers have worn them. And the dresses are all the more charming for it.<\/p>\n

They seem to me to whisper a story of very-much-loved little girls who were dressed in their best, but still allowed to have fun.<\/p>\n

In my mind I can almost hear the giggles from parties long ago…The frilly frocks from the box will become outfits for a commissioned set of tiny fairy dolls. They will be turned into miniature<\/em> frilly frocks. I will cut around the stains.<\/p>\n

But I can’t say I’m looking forward to wielding my scissors…<\/p>\n

I will have to steel myself to destroy a little piece of the past – and silence those ghostly girly giggles forever.\u2665<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes people send me really interesting things. I’ve had fabulous fabric, vintage goodies and various natty novelties in the post – but I’d never received any frilly frocks – until now. A whole box of frilly frocks arrived the other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,15,17,18],"tags":[206,1489,1607],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n