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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Family History Fashion Show

On Sunday night, we did the most fun thing. We went through Grandma Elison's hope chest with her, and tried on a bunch of her, and her mom's clothing. In the process, we got to hear the stories of each of the pieces of clothing. I don't know who doesn't like to play dress up, or history, but the combination of the two was positively fantastic.
This dress was Grandma Elisons, and apart from wearing it to a wedding reception, she wore it when she played in the ballroom scene in "The Sound of Music." Richard Losee was playing Captain Von Trapp, and apparently, he was so handsome, that Grandma had a hard time remembering her line. The headband came from Grandma's mom, and apparently she wore it when she went out for a night on the town.

This was one of the dresses that we found out that Great Grandma Neely made. Like, with a sewing machine, and talent. The shawl is from Hawaii, I think. She didn't make that though. Also, there's been no alteration done to any of the dresses...Grandma Elison and Grandma Neely really were just that thin, as is Natalie.

Here's Natalie and Nate, Nate sporting Grandpa Elison's MP hat, and suit coat, Natalie adding a fabulous hat that came from a recent production of the Music Man.

Here are Mar and McKensie, sporting some fabulously handmade clothing again. Notice how the outfits actually fit both of these young ladies. The sewing on the dress that Mariel is wearing was so fun. The dress had like, a Spanish style ruffling along the bottom.


And here's Luke...wearing...a dress. After trying to convince him to wear Grandma Elison's old dance outfit, which was purple, the size of a bathing suit, and covered in lace and fabric lollipops, he picked this instead...and he's darling in it.

Not that we're endorsing cross dressing.

Lily is wearing a dress that Great Grandma Neely made for Grandma Elison for her first piano recital. There are some really cute cherries on it, and it's adorable.

Here's Uncle Kurt wearing his old letterman's jacket. It still fits...though not quite as loosely as it once did.

Karly is wearing probably the one piece of clothing that nobody knew anything about...we just found it in the closet. That my friends, is a t-shirt with American Gothic printed on it. Could you ask for anything cooler?

Here, Mar and McKensie wear dresses created again by Great Grandma Neely, with fabric that she brought back from a trip to Hawaii.

Here, Gwen is wearing a dress that Great Grandma made for Grandma, when she was in college. Apparently, Grandma Elison was going dancing at Salt Air, and she wore this dress to do it. Gwen is 10, and while the dress is a little long for her, it fits her in the waist perfectly.

Here's Grandpa Elison wearing his dad's old hat.

And here's Gavin wearing the same one, with an additional accessory.

Here, Emma sports a shirt that Great Grandma Neely made for Grandma Elison for a picture that was going to be taken. The shirt is really cute, and totally current with today's style.

This is the dress that started it all. I wish we had more pictures of it, because it really looks fantastic on Abby. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa were part of a dancing group who would get together a few times a year for a very fancy date. Great Grandma would make these clothes to match the theme of the evening. Abby is Tiny, and so was Grandma Neely. She also had really great taste, and amazing sewing talent.

I think the best part about the whole evening was the fun that it was. It really got every one of the grandchildren there interested in where the things came from, and why they were so old, and why we had them etc. If you're looking at figuring out a way to get smaller children interested in Family History--this is a really great way to do it.

4 comments:

  1. That is so beyond awesome. I wish my grandmas had kept some of their old stuff!

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  2. Yeah, really this was amazing. I'm so glad you had your camera, Nicole!

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  3. That was a really fun night! We need to do that again! Oh and I think you accidentally wrote "Gwen" instead of "Emma" when Emma is modeling her shirt.

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