A Barbie Tale

My daughter loves Barbie.  She's a little young, perhaps, for this love affair, but she prefers Barbies over any other doll.  She watches Barbie movies and plays with Barbies and their shoes.  One movie she loves is the Barbie version of the 12 Dancing Princesses.  It's a cute movie with not just one, but 12 Barbies, wonderful dancing music, dancing shoes, and even a dancing kitty.  Auntie Nini picked it out for Hannah and it's definitely a favorite.  At the end of this movie, Barbie gets married.  A few weeks ago I dug out a wedding dress for Barbie.  My mom made it - a beautiful beaded crocheted number that fit Barbie perfectly.  She had a veil, too, and Hannah loved her and called her "Barbie-married."  Hannah liked to reenact the "Barbie gets married" dancing scene.  

For a few days she took her Barbie-married everywhere until...we lost her.  A couple of Fridays ago, somewhere between Walmart and Lowes, Barbie disappeared, probably left in a cart, but we're really not sure.  We didn't even realize it until the morning, when Hannah awoke and asked for her Barbie-married.  I thought she was in the car, but when I failed to find her there, I began to worry.  I called Walmart and we even got up and dressed and went to physically look for her at our previous night's errands, but to no avail.  Barbie was gone.  I cried.  I felt worse than Hannah, I think.  Hannah had only played with Barbie and her beautiful beaded dress for a few days.  I had lost another piece of my mom - her hands making that dress, threading the beads, following the pattern, probably spending hours on it.  I still feel sick for having lost that dress.  In conversation about this loss, it was suggested that I just place all of my mom's items (made or passed on) in a glass cupboard under lock and key.  I could, but then they wouldn't be enjoyed quite as much.  I am lucky to have kept or been given many things that my mom crafted.  I know my mom made her crafts to be used, not just put up on a high shelf to look at. 

Well, Hannah still asks for Barbie-married.  When I tell her it's lost, she says, "Find it."  We tried, baby girl, we tried.  So, now Hannah wants a Barbie-married and well, JoAnn's had 99 cent patterns, and some tulle in the remnants bin, and I had a few scraps of satin and...

I made Barbie a wedding dress.  I spent most of a day on it.  I'm not a terrific seamstress to start with and those Barbie pieces are really small and fancy material frays.  So, when I finished the dress according to the pattern I had to add a few "touch-ups" to hide some ill-fitting flaws. 

I wasn't going to give it to Hannah right away - maybe save it for Easter, and try to make it a little better in the meantime, but she asked for Barbie-married this morning.  I was disappointed with my sewing and thought the dress and veil really weren't that great, but apparently Hannah disagrees.  When I showed her the new Barbie-married, I almost cried again at her reaction.  Hannah stared, drew in a deep breath and in awe and wonder, said, "oh," as she looked at her and then at me.  She then gently took Barbie-married into her own hands and examined her, touching the sequins and flower, the full skirt and the veil, and she approved.  Right now Barbie-married is sitting with Hannah eating breakfast.  Maybe the dress isn't as good as my mom's, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  Hannah loves it, Hannah loves me, and I love Hannah.  If Barbie runs errands with us, we'll be more careful and hopefully my stitches will last long enough for Hannah to play Barbie-married with her daughter, and think of me.

I linked this post to a Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot.  Check her out for lots of fun crafty ideas.