Sewing stories and hand-stitched nostalgia

I've been thinking a lot about sewing and memories and nostalgia lately. Partly this relates to my 'real work' on sewing, where I've thinking about the stories we tell and share about the garments we make. I love that social media has enabled the sharing of our sewing experiences more widely, and that sewing has moved out of the private sphere and into the public - our memories are now not only stitched into the garments we make, but are also woven through the digital stories we tell about them. 

But this little wander down memory lane has also been sparked by a recent inheritance - my Mum's handmade bridesmaid dresses!! Mum was helping Grandma clear out some cupboards recently and I happened to be talking to them both on Skype at the time. The dresses were destined for the secondhand shop where goodness only knows what would have happened to them. I just couldn't let them go! Mum made them herself (and I think her wedding dress...she will no doubt correct me if I've gotten that wrong) and they are genuine 1970s delights! I actually wore the wedding dress itself at high-school in a play (we did the Sound of Music and I was Maria, so I wore the dress to get married on stage. Rather weirdly, the guy they got to play the priest was an actual priest, so it was all very authentic! Poor Mum - I also wore another of her 1970s creations as Maria's "ugly dress"...it was brown with floral and lace. In actual fact, it was probably lovely, and is very likely back in boho fashion now, but in the late 1990s, seen through my teenage eyes, it seemed an ideal Maria look), but I'd never seen the bridesmaid dresses. 

Here they are in 1977 at their original appearance (my two aunts are wearing them - Barbara is the aunt in the yellow, and Joy is wearing the green). 

I can only imagine how giant the heels my Aunty Barbara was wearing...she's under 5ft and that dress is long even on me (at my statuesque 5ft3)! You can see how gloriously late 1970s they are - the high neckline in particular is fabulous. I think Mum's dress was the same pattern. 

Mum and Dad divorced when I was around 11, so to be honest, the dresses don't necessarily have the happiest of memories attached to them in that sense (Grandma was trying to blame the dresses for that bad marital luck, but I'm less convinced of that argument!). 

But I do love that they are a piece of my Mum's (and now my) handmade history. The dresses are so carefully sewn - you can see it in the zigzag stitching along the inside seam allowances and the beautiful rouleau loops and covered buttons Mum made - I just couldn't let them end up rotting away in some second-hand store! 

                             

So now they're mine! What on earth I'm going to do with them I haven't the faintest! I had originally thought perhaps to make a sundress out of the fabric - there's plenty of it. But now I'm not sure I like the idea of cutting into Mum's handiwork. Do I really need a sundress in 1970s poly crepe, or would they be better kept for posterity?! Or is it adding to their story to refashion them into something new? I'm not yet sure. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome! 

While I decide, here are some pics of me dressing up 1970s-style! (I'm wearing the highest wedges I had in my wardrobe and there's still a good 4 inches of fabric on the ground! I couldn't fit into the yellow one. My Aunty Barb is super tiny)

Are you looking at me? Step back! (Getting my 1970s Fierce Side-Eye on)