Ladies and Gentlemen, today is a very sad day indeed. Today is the day we have gathered together to mourn the passing of a dress. This dress has been my constant companion for over a year and though I am sorry to see it go I do feel that this is the right thing to do. I have mended and patched this dress several times, but now I see that it is time to let it go.
I first knew that the time had come to retire the purple dress when I noticed a tear. Now, this was not the first tear this dress and I had gone through together. Many were the times I had to get out the old needle and thread and fix some rip or the other. But lately I had been noticing a certain hesitancy on the dress’ part to want to stayed sewn together. It started rejecting the patches I put into it and with this new tear I knew it was time. I didn’t want to subject my dress to yet another patch or mending. So, it is time to say goodbye.
But this doesn’t have to be only a time of sadness. This should be a time to celebrate the life of the purple dress. So please listen while I honor the memory of this dress by sharing a few of the good times we had together.
This dress was one of my first purple dresses, the first purple dress I made by myself. It was made out of lightweight cotton which made it perfect for those hot summer days. And yet with just one more layer it kept me warm in those cold winter winds. I remember sewing it and thinking that I hoped I would like this dress. I hadn’t done much with the pattern before and I was a little nerveous it wouldn’t turn out well. But just looking at the beautiful purple was enough to spur me on to greater heights of sewing genius. And in the end I had a dress that served me well for over a year.
This dress was the dress I wore to celebrate the very first Day of Purple. And it was this dress the I was wearing when I took the kids to the park on a windy day. Oh, that day it was as if the dress had a mind of it’s own. I’ve worn this dress for good times, bad times and crazy times. Mostly crazy times. And always, the fact that I was wearing a purple dress got me through.
If this dress had been a person I suspect she would have look rather flustered all the time and had flyaway hair. Somewhere in the life of this purple dress it picked up a couple of bleached stains. I have no idea where they came from, but for me they gave the dress more character. No longer was this some garden variety purple dress. This was a purple dress with bleach stains! It was something I and my dress could be proud of. Sometimes it’s the little things that make you really appreciate a purple dress and make everybody else think you’re crazy.
Goodbye purple dress. It’s been good. I know that if your fabric is still good enough for me to cut up and put into something else I will think of you when I see your dismembered parts. I will always think of you as a friend. Goodbye, goodbye.