Back in 1983 my parents were married and my mama made her own wedding dress.
Check out those cute kids back in the day!
When I was born a little over a year later, my mom used the bottom portion of her dress to make a crib skirt for my crib. All that remained of her dress was some of the eyelet material she used for the bodice and skirt of her dress.
Personally, I'm not one to want to save a wedding dress. Let's be honest, you're never going to wear it. It seems so much more practical to use the material for other things that you need. Or in my own case, to sell it on Craigslist so you can buy your first child a car seat!
Anyways, getting back to the eyelet material. My mom has been holding onto it for years in her craft supplies. In the fall she was downsizing and I took it. I just love the delicate simplicity of white eyelet fabric. In my usual fashion, I had nothing in mind for it when I took it, but the pieces were large and it's pretty. Actually, the fact that it's pretty was all I needed to hang onto it.
Recently ideas started coming to me for ways to use it in our daily lives. First up was an old leather ottoman cushion from Egypt that has been sitting around our living room. It's pretty neat looking, but was coming apart at the seams and was duct taped together. I don't know about you, but duct tape isn't really a design statement I like to make permanent in my living room decor. After staring at the ottoman all winter and staring at my fabric stash, I finally realized what needed to be done.
I don't have any pictures of the ottoman by itself - here is it under our coffee table.
And another shot with a glimpse of the duct tape that eventually had to be wound all the way around the poor old cushion.
So, one evening I found a larger scrap of red upholstery fabric left over from covering a chair nearly a decade ago. I used the red fabric to cover the sides and wrap underneath the cushion, which is tied on the bottom with a drawstring ribbon. On the top, I quilted together two pieces of eyelet fabric, using another leftover scrap of quilt batting - I just love to save and use up the scraps!
I can't speak for the rest of you, but in my opinion this is MUCH better looking.
Quilted top.
It's pretty and it's practical - as always in our house, this cover slips off for easy washing!
The ottoman didn't use up all of the fabric, so thankfully when Töchterchen started asking for more summer nightgowns last week, I knew just what to reach for. There was enough eyelet left to make her two. After she heard the fabric was from her Oma's wedding dress, she was in love the idea. Like her mother, she is quite the romantic at heart already.
So thrilled.
Ballerina pose - her favorite these days.
Did you know all dresses/nightgowns have to pass the twirl test before being fully approved?
There's only a small piece of the eyelet fabric left now. Hmm...I wonder if it's enough to make another play skirt for Töchterchen....
