Emmy's new old green dress

Amelia, or Emmy as we call her, has a penchant for vintage baby dresses. I love it. I try and accomodate her love of the simple old-time fashions whenever I can.

I scored this dress at a consignment store. It has a small rounded collar, a high waist, a lace hem and a button up back bodice. Little gathered sleeves round off the top. I got it at a stuff a bag sale at this great consignment store I used to frequent. They had a Black Friday sale where I got to stuff a grocery sized bag with whatever I could get my hands on before someone else, all for ten bucks. It started at ten a.m. Shoppers were already lined up in front of the store on that cold morning, bags at the ready. The owner, Michelle, signaled us a go. The smoky breath of a dozen bargain crazed women filed the frigid air as clothing was pulled haphazardly from hangers; eyes quickly darting around as we all searched for things we just had to have; bags shuddering under the weight.

Mayhem, coffee, and a rare vintage clothes find, a girl's dream come true.

There was only one problem...the dress is stained just a little. Perhaps that's why I was able to find it among the racks of clothes, passed by. You can't really see in the photos but there is a light brown water mark across the entire top of the bodice. There were a few other yellowish spots on the skirt as well. The lace also seemed to be a bit darker than the cream of the dress. I quickly analized the merit of these imperfections. There's nothing wrong with an imperfect dress, you just have to get creative.

Once, in a different thrift store I found a really cute red baby doll dress that just happened to be Emmy's size. It is similar to this style but shorter. She was with me that day and saw me pull it from it's hiding space on the rack. In the middle of the store Emmy stripped screaming "Dat Emmy Dwess! Emmy weared it! I pud id on!" Needless to say, that dress is hanging in her closet now. If she knew it was there, she'd be stripping right now to don it. She runs to these dresses, fetching them out of the dryer. She doesn't do this with her Gymboree ensembles. It cost me three dollars and lights up my baby's face. Can't get much better than that.

When you like vintage things, like we do, you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. This was a really well made dress. Being a fairly capable clothing sewer I checked the seams for durability. I couldn't tell how old it was because there is no tag but by the style and the stains it's probably at least as old as I am. I saw potential in the dress. I stuffed it in my bag. Pleased as punch with my find, knowing I had a little someone at home that would just gush over it.

So, I brought it home and true to form, Emmy fell in love with "Emmy peddy dwess!" (Why she refers to herself in the third person is a mystery, I can't remember any of the others doing it, but it's Emmy and we love it) I wanted to give it to her then but I couldn't let her have it without some doctoring. I pulled out a few fabric dyes I had on hand for some different projects. Denim blue or Kelly green were my only options, unless I wanted to go to the store to get a different color. I didn't want to. Kelly green it was!

Emmy was delighted watching me "Emmy dresses colors." as she put it which in toddler talk means:

 "Mommy is dying my dress Kelly green. That is my dress. I'm Emmy. I'll wear it when she's done but I'm still going to ask her a million times what she's doing, if I can help and if it's done before she gives it to me."

So, with Emmy by my side every step of the way, we dyed it green. We rinsed it. A lot. We washed it by itself and then dried it. Finally, finally, Emmy got to put on her peddy dwess all toasty from the dryer...which she wears backwards.