
Then there was the challenge of finding a dress. It seems to me we went out twice looking for one. Once in Columbus and once nearer home. Back in the day, I was quite a seamstress. I had made my prom dress and my graduation dress for high school and lots of other clothes including a suit for homecoming at OSU. Back then we actually got dressed up for homecoming football games. When we found the dress that I liked, we both got very quiet. Mom understood my creative bent. "You think you can make it?" she asked.
I twirled around then began to examine how it was put together. "Maybe," I said.
We told the attendant we would think about the dress and left. Later, putting our heads together, Mom offered to buy a dress form for me and we planned to price out the lace and taffeta or satin we would need. The more we looked at materials, the more excited I got. The only problem--I was going to spend a good part of the summer at school because I needed a couple more courses to complete so I could graduate at the same time Bob would finish his Master's Degree.

Once home from school that summer, I plunged in and began my dress. I took the pattern I'd used for my prom dress and used that as the basis for the wedding gown. I had to enlarge the skirt to make it full for a hoop. (Cinderella style was popular back then.) I used another pattern to form the long sleeves. There was a lot of hand sewing once the basic dress was made.
The back of the dress is a cascade of layers of puffy lace. Each row was hand sewn. With the dress form, I could just sit and sew each layer and see it all come together. Sewing the little pearls on the front took a lot of time and the long veil for church was another challenge. But by the time September arrived, the dress was finished.


Someday I hope my beautiful granddaughters will find someone to share a lifetime with and my handsome grandsons will be the perfect mates who will honor and love their brides.
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