Remember that favorite Easter dress you wore when you were 8 years old? The one everyone said you looked so pretty in? It was pink with blue flowers, or were they lavender? Did it have a sash? I imagine you wish you still had it so you could remember every detail.

Well, I was blessed with a treasure trove of memories from nearly all my outfits from my first birthday until I graduated from college. How, you ask? Let me tell you.

Mom Taps into Her Creativity

My mother was the youngest of four children, with three older brothers. Although she started out a tomboy, at age 10 she began imagining and drawing paper dolls, hundreds of them, in fact. It wasn’t long after that her mother taught her to sew.

Mom had a real flair for design. She and her childhood friend Sally designed many bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses as they planned extravagant and beautiful weddings. My mother dreamt of being married in the family garden wearing one of her own creations handmade by her mom. Alas, she married on a cold November Monday morning wearing a navy shirtwaist dress.

Then came me, an only child—and a girlie-girl at that. Mom quickly realized an opportunity to channel her sewing expertise with her unfulfilled “wedding dress” creativity.

In the 1950s and ’60s, nearly everybody’s mother or grandmother sewed. My mother was no different, except that she was an exceptional seamstress. No shortcuts were ever taken: Plaids always matched and even if the slightest mistake was made, one that no one would ever see, she would do it over because, “I’ll know!”

Mom never had a sewing machine with a buttonhole maker. She hand-stitched each buttonhole with such minute, precise stitches that they were truly a thing of beauty. Everything she created—from decorative pillows, drapes, and upholstery to a Big Bird costume or baby rompers and smocked dresses to hijabs and myriad prom dresses—was done with loving care and attention to detail.

By now you’re thinking, “What about the treasure trove?”

Sewing and Fine Art Come Together

 

 

When I turned a year old, Mom made me a special dress. It was white window-pane cotton over a light blue taffeta slip with blue smocking and a matching blue sash. It was my first party dress, and the beginning of my wardrobe diaries, which spans two decades.

From 1952 to 1973, my mother documented nearly everything she made for me in a series of small spiral notebooks. The first page of each book began with the title, Wardrobe of Debra Mack.  She made a detailed pen-and-ink drawing of each outfit with the date or event and a brief description and/or comment. To each page, she then stapled a swatch of the material along with any additional trim. On the outside, the notebooks were nothing special, just plain 4-inch by 6-inch pads with lined paper. But inside . . . inside was pure magic and sweet memories.

Diaries Held Dearly

In addition to a record of my personal wardrobe, the notebooks show a history of styles and trends. There were pinafores; dirndls; wraparound, mini, and midi skirts; and A-line dresses. Plus, there was an array of fabrics: polished cotton, corduroy, dotted swiss, and velveteen to name a few.

Over and above these precious notebooks, my mother created watercolor paper dolls of most of my earliest clothes and sewed matching outfits for my Shirley Temple, Ginette, and Barbie dolls.

I was a lucky little girl.

 

Mom kept all the notebooks in a special drawer in her desk, and I always loved watching as she drew each outfit. After I graduated from college, she stopped adding to the notebooks and didn’t sew for me as much.

One day, after I had my own apartment, I dropped by to visit and my mother said, “I have something I want you to have.” She reached into the special drawer and gave me the notebooks. “They’re yours now. Enjoy!”

What a beautiful gift and hand-drawn treasure . . . my life captured in sketches, swatches, and paper dolls.

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Debra Mack Larson is a graphic designer and author of the award-winning book, Pink Satin Sashes (Larson Design, 2019).

Illustrations: Mary Shreffler Mack.