"Easter Parade"

I don't know if anyone still buys a new hat for Easter or even a new dress, but we all used to!  I loved shopping for my Easter outfit every year when I was growing up.  Always found a pretty Spring-like dress in some pastel color and found a hat that went with it.  Up until I was in my teens, it seems to me that I always got patent leather shoes in either white or black and had ankle socks with a ruffle.  Some years, like this one, when Easter was early, I also got a new spring coat.  We were living in FL then, and a spring coat could pretty much work for all year.  Does anyone still sell spring coats anymore?

There was one year I remember my new outfit particularly well because my mother made it....by hand!  We had no sewing machine, but every now and then Mom would make me a dress.  She would buy a pattern, cut it out, pin it, and then sit in her chair every evening hand-sewing something for me to wear.  The Easter dress I remember my mom making was when I was around 11 or 12.  I was stick thin and short and there was no question  that I was still a child (unlike some 11-12 years old now who look at least 15!)  Anyway, the dress she made had a dropped waist, short sleeves, a kind of rolled collar, buttoned down the back, and had a full skirt.  It also had a long-sleeved light-weight (unlined) spring coat...which she also made by hand!!  The material that mom and I picked out was lavender flowers on a white background for the dress, and a solid lavender for the rolled collar and as trim at the dropped waist.  She made the coat out of the same lavender material.

There was a white hat, new white gloves, and white patent leather shoes.  I loved it!  I felt like I was definitely ready for the "Easter Parade."  That outfit was one of the last things mom made for me, except for some costume things for school and Halloween.  I was turning into a teenager and home-made dresses were not what teenage girls were willing to wear in a small town in FL in 1959.

Still I'll never forget the sight of my mom sitting each night for days and days with her needle and thread hand-sewing my brand new Easter outfit for the Easter Parade!

Whether or not you get a new outfit, I hope you have a lovely Easter that adds up to wonderful memories of what Easter is like in your house!

M-t-G's 2nd Easter
(Her 1st was when she was 1 week old!)