Wardrobe Memories

One blog that I follow, 13 Threads, invited readers to search our wardrobes for some memories.  Her ideas was inspired by Ida Taavitsainen's  "The memory of my wardrobe". My memory is a shirt I just altered for myself.  This shirt belonged to my mother who passed away 6 years ago from complications of hepatitis C.  My mother sewed clothing and knitted sweaters for my sister and me.  I love this shirt because of the soft cotton fabric, the beautiful Liberty inspired print and of course for sentimental reasons. This is the shirt my mother wore to brighten up her day.  It has been in my closet for a while.  For most of her life, my mother was a petite lady who was 5 foot 3 inches, and weighed just over a hundred pounds.  She looked particularly petite standing next to my dad who was a 6 foot 4 inch glider pilot when she met and married him back in 1945.  I love this shirt and it was one of the few things of hers that I could wear, I am much taller and a bit bigger.  However, at the end of her life, her disease had caused her body to swell, and she had to go out and buy clothes that were bigger and loose fitting, but she still wanted to look pretty and feminine.  This was a shirt she wore often.

I took it out of my closet this week and altered it to fit me with darts front and back and I took it up under the arms and up the side.  I sewed the cuffs down at the edge and added buttons to the cuffs.  I wore this shirt the other day and my husband said, "Is that a new shirt?"  I laughed and said no, it was very old.  He said it looked great and he loved it, and so do I.