House Dresses and Moumous

My mother used to wear house-dresses.  This was when I was very young.  I remember them so distinctly.  They were cotton and gingham checks or paisley prints.  It was a very clever design.  The dress was both wrap-around and reversible.  The inside and outside fabrics would be different, but coordinating prints (the better to camouflage spills and splashes).  All edges were trimmed with piping which gave them body so that they would hang as if they had been starched.  They had an un-constructed bodice with cap sleeves and a six core skirt with deep, deep side pockets.  They were very pretty and very practical.

On day one she wore side one, wrapping from right to left, day two she switched the wrap from left to right, day three she would reverse wrapping right to left and then day four wrapped from left to right.  With this single garment she had a clean dress for in or out of the house for 4 days running.  And the style was such that it was cool in the summer and, with a cardigan, comfortable for the winter.  She was a great sewer so I don’t know if she had had a pattern for this or designed it herself.  But, kudos to the cleverness of looking fine and reducing washing, and back then, ironing.

These recent steamy days brought these to mind.  I’ve been coming home from work and immediately wanted the slacks and top off along with everything girthing my skin.  When I am going to be in the house for the rest of the day, and not expecting anyone, I am always sans underwear.  Oh the glory of unconfined flesh!  But, if I need to go out, say to the mailbox, the dumpster, to water my plants, well that is not a sight I want to expose my neighbors to.  So, this is what got me thinking about my mother’s house dresses; and about muumuus.  I so wanted something like these to put on. 

Muumuus are made with bold cotton prints so no one can tell what is or isn’t going on under neither and they hang loosely so there is plenty of ventilation.  I was desperately wishing I had one in my closet.  Then I remembered a beach cover-up from years back and many fewer pounds ago.  It was a mid-calf, cotton T-shirt.  I recalled that it had said “one-size-fits-all”.  Well, I was going to dig it out and see, was that true or was it “one size fits some” or “one size fits everyone weighing less than me”.  Well, this is truly a “one-size-fits-all”.  Thanks and hat’s off to that great T-shirt emporium, Cuffy’s of Cape Cod.  It has a very large bird and flower iron on transfer that covers all that might be happening under neither.  What joy, reasonably decent and oh, so cool and comfortable!  I do think I still want a classic muumuu.  For the fun of it and to give my kids a great laugh!  Be prepared, they’ll probably insist I post pix of me in it!