There is a magic in handmade clothing that transcends the colors, styles, even the quality of the work. It is as if each point and each node has been imbued with the love of hand designed. And when I had my first child, I took the hook and thread and started making clothes they wear to the hospital.
Do not stop there, however. Making clothes for babies is simply a way to save money or create clothing styles. It is a way to surround them with love, to weave your wishes into the fabric and create each piece.
Over the years I have sewn, crocheted sweaters, rompers, dresses, shorts sets, blankets, quilts, hats and pants for my five children. Held their return, each of whom had special clothes that I designed and created especially for them. I would say that this may be an illusion, a wish the bottom of my own feelings about my dressing my babies with my own hands, would have transferred to my children - except:
A month ago, I fell flat on my daughter. The little girl was dressed in a strawberry rompers - each item carefully placed by hand, each with a desire and whispered a blessing for her happiness - is now 22 years old, a college graduate with a house own. Threw on a table in the corner is a blanket I crocheted for her since she was three of ragtag son. On his walls are pictures of him wearing a sweater I made for it - pull even at 3, 5, 7 jersey now even clothes teddy bear sits on her dresser.
Except:
My 19 year old son, maturity and life of its own, still owns knit baby blanket that enveloped his return trip to the hospital. It creates and manufactures its own clothes - imaginative and unusual - and spots on his jeans and jacket, I find pieces of shirts and shorts and sweaters I made for him through the years.
My 15 years has concealed part of the dress I made for her - when she was six months. She never said a word to me about - I found it in his "treasure the memory box. And the two younger boys? At 10 and 12, they each have their favorite blanket - the ones that I knit for them when they were born.
There is magic in your hands when you create clothes for your child, the magic of love of a mother who is never completely forgotten.
