Thursday, April 12, 2007

My Sister, The Fashion Plate


August 1983. My 11 year old sister, Jenni, and her friend, Sarah, flew from New Jersey to my house in Florida for a summer visit.
The week of their visit was the Annual "Make-It-Model-It" Fashion Show at Church. Now the "Model-It" portion of this title was and exciting proposition for these girls. Yet, the "Make-It" portion was a little more complicated.
By no means am I an expert seamstress, I can hold my own on straight lines and mending, but constructing items of clothing does not flow naturally from my body, yet I wanted to make sure Jenni and Laura had the best summer vacation experience possible, so I went to work.
A few other complications included, I had a 2 year old son, a 5 month old son who was still nursing every 2 hours (round the clock), a husband who was never home as he was studying to take his Florida State General Contractors Test, I was the RS President, and 'semi' in charge of the Fashion Show event.
I explained to Jenni and Sarah that I could make their matching dresses if they would play with the babies as I sewed. They wanted the dresses and the modeling debut badly, so agreeing to help was not an issue. After two days of cutting, measuring, sewing, and, I am sure re-stitching, the result was two happy aspiring models in their ultra 80's dresses. I am not sure the dresses are as cute as the stockings with open-toed shoes, but at least this was "pre-pink hair" days for one of them....


With the presence and confidence of a Paris debut, Jenni heads down the runway as Sarah looks on.
Viewing photos from the past brings back a flood of memories. The little house in Greenacres that we paid $48,000.00 for and the little blue Honda Accord that is still on the road and making a colllege student happy.
So much I could post about from one photo.

3 comments:

Jenni said...

oooooooohhhh, I better watch out, you are dangerous with that scanner, no incriminating photos, ok? I loved that dress more than anything in the world. You are so modest, you rock the sewing machine...look at that cute little suit below! How old was Curt in that photo? Looks like about Christian's age.

Shauna said...

I am sure nothing I have is incriminating.....???? Curt was 21 months old in that photo. Jeffrey had just been born.

love.boxes said...

Look at our beautiful Jenni, still the prettiest girl around! :)We represent the Utah contingent of the Jenni fan club!