I enjoy sewing and have made countless little outfits for
other people’s children. In the days
following the passing of my little girl, I was basically on bed rest. I couldn’t
stand for very long at one time but I couldn’t sit there and do nothing either!
I got to thinking
about how with other children we will get to celebrate birthdays and other
milestones- and how with Jubilee, this would not be the case. I wanted to make
something for my own little girl. The time was now; I felt I would regret it later if I didn’t put
that same creative energy and enthusiasm into creating something special and
memorable for her. That is so much a part of who I am and would have been so
much a part of the kind of mother I would have been to her- I needed to do some
of things I would have done had she been born alive. So I rang the funeral
director and arranged that I would make an outfit for her and they were to
dress her in it for her Memorial Celebration.
I made a knee length dress and matching headband, bloomers and shoes. Getting the right size was easy because I had this vivid
image of how big she was, but to make it more precise I enlarged a photo of her
on our computer screen until it matched her actual length in real life (26cm)
and then took some extra measurements based on that. Using her little
footprints, I was able to cut a custom pattern for her shoes.
The fabric that I used, I had saved for a Christening Dress,
if we had little girl. Because Juby was so tiny, I still have enough fabric
left to make something similar for another daughter when we have one. It will
be cute that the sisters get to wear outfits made from the same piece of
fabric.
I was so pleased how it turned out. My husband loved it and was so taken by how cute the little
buttons were! He asked where I found them- I’d had them in the cupboard for
ages but they were so tiny they weren’t able to be used for other things- but
they were perfect for this. I never got to see her in it but I can imagine how
cute she would have looked in it.
As part of this need to do stuff for her: I also made her a
cake; red velvet, with pale pink icing.
It was decorated with pale pink and tiny polka dot bunting with white, glittery letters forming her name (thanks to
Aunty Bekka for helping). We all shared a
piece at lunch when we gathered following her Memorial Celebration. I also made
hot pink and white cross shaped biscuits.
No comments:
Post a Comment