The Tale of the Missing Dresses - Subtitle: I Am Losing My Mind!

Sub-Sub Title:  Uhhhhh......You Can't Lose Something You Never Had (referring to my mind)

Last fall I brought a bunch of the dresses that I've made for my granddaughters over the years home with me to display in a trunk show.  I brought the dresses home with me and put them in a guest room closet.  A few months ago, I took them to my dear friend and co-wearable arts fashion show committee member to take with her when she was going to do presentations to promote our show.  She and a couple of other committee members went to various organizations' meetings to talk about our show and to show off some of the types of items that will be in it.
Well, the other day, I decided that I needed to think seriously about which dresses I wanted to have in our show this year.  Since I'm probably not going to have time to get something new made, I thought that perhaps one or two of the dresses that were in the presentation collection would work.  So.......I went to our Arts Council office to pick up my dresses.  When I picked them up, there were only 5 dresses, all size two or so.  I knew that I had loaned at least one larger sized dress.
This dress was made for our next to oldest granddaughter a couple of Easter's ago.  The hemline and sleeves are made from a vintage table cloth.  I embroidered the flowers in each scallop.   There is hand smocking on the bodice.  I also made the matching slip to go with this dress.

 

My friend remembered this dress being one that I took her because she asked me to make all three of her granddaughters slip dresses like this one. 

She gave me the most beautiful quilted wall hanging that she had created.       

To make a long and very tearful, emotional story short, this dress wasn't in with the others.  At first, I thought that my friend must have kept it and the others that I was pretty sure I had taken to her to still use for future presentations.  But, you guessed it, when I called her, she said that she had taken all she had back to the Arts Council office.  I called the other two ladies, and again, you guessed it, they didn't have any more of my dresses either. (It didn't help that I was really having an emotional day because of my Mother's condition, which is worsening by the day.)
I came home and looked in the closet where I had put these dresses, then I looked at my pictures on iphoto on the computer, and sure enough, there were EIGHT dresses missing!!!!!!

This is one photo that I looked at to confirm what was gone.  The blue floral on the top left, the green next to it, the yellow which is third from the right on the top, and the yellow on the bottom left were among the ones I didn't have.  There were others, but I won't make you look at all of them.  I will tell you, though, that all of these dresses have vintage handkerchiefs, table cloths, tea towels, trim, placemats, and or napkins incorporated into their designs.  Some are hand smocked.  All were made with love in every stitch for the particular granddaughter for whom they were made.
So, if you are a creator of things, you understand how I was feeling.  These couldn't be replaced.  My daughter is keeping all of these dresses for her girls.  I knew she would be upset.  Finally, though, I called her.  She went to her closet that she keeps these dresses in, and lo and behold, every last one of the MISSING DRESSES was there!  When did I take them to her?  When did I get them back from my friend?  I don't know!  I don't remember!  But, to make me feel better, my friend thought she had the pink dress and for sure that green one in the above photo.  Also, my daughter didn't remember me bringing them back to her!  I am going to take the ones I still have the next time we go to visit her, and I don't think I'll be borrowing any more!!!
Except, I still need to have one or two for the fashion show.  I'm thinking about these two with the woven ribbon bodices.  These are Easter dresses that I have made for the oldest two granddaughters.  The pink one was for the same granddaughter for whom I made the pink dress and slip that was MISSING.

 

This dress was last year's Easter dress for our oldest granddaughter and the first one that I made with a woven ribbon bodice.

Okay, it's time to get back to Halloween costumes.  I am making progress.