I owe it all to my mom…Margaret Weaver. We call her Margaret Sr., because I’m a Margaret and so is my daughter, Margot, (aka, Margaret, Jr.!)

My mom grew up one of 12 children, so any clothes she had were hand-me-downs from her elder sisters.  She learned to sew to be able to have new clothes, while attending Troy State.  She then went on to teach sewing classes in Homewood back in the 1940s and sew for several people throughout the years.

It was not something I decided I wanted to learn, it was just a given, that I would sew—because my mother did. She made all of my clothes growing up.  Swimsuits, coats, suits, everything! Of course, all girls back in the late sixties and early seventies took home economics in school where we all learned to make a dress, or an apron etc… But, I had an advantage. I had been sewing since I was 11 years old. I still remember my first project. It was a jumpsuit.

 Anyway, I just kept it up and purchased my first machine in 1982 from Sears.  I started making my clothes for work, then when my children were born, continued sewing for them. I would purchase outfits from a little boutique in Mountain Brook for them. They were so expensive, that I would only be able to afford one little outfit for each of them per season. When they outgrew them, I would take the seams apart and recreate the piece making it larger for them to wear the next season.

I did put the machine up for a number of years. Of course, the children get old enough to say, ‘I don’t want a homemade outfit! I want something from Ralph Lauren!’ And so the machine collected dust for years, except for curtains and pillows and things like that for the house.

 I decided three years ago that Margot, needed to learn to sew.  She never asked me to teach her, I just decided for her! Well, that lasted for all of one skirt… and so the machine sat in waiting, again.

Fast forward to July 2008 and Margot and now my son-in-law, Chris, are engaged. We began the search for wedding gowns. From the start, she told me specifically what she did not want…. a ball gown. 

 So we search for mermaid styles, tulip, a-line, off the shoulder, anything but ball gown. All over Birmingham and Atlanta, . . . still not the dress.

October 2008: Finally we stumble on to a shop in North Alabama. She tries on another 40 dresses and then she sighs…“THIS IS IT!, Mom! This is MY dress! I knew when I found THE ONE, that it would feel just perfect! This is it”.  
Great!!! we found THE dress. And she was gorgeous in it.

 December 2008: Dinner with her future in laws. I asked her to show the picture of her dress to her future Mother in law, Jayne Morrow, quickly she turned away and changed the subject. I never said a word to her about it.

 January 2008: We were going over wedding plans and I asked her again, “Did you ever show Jayne your gown picture yet?” Crocodile tears welled up in those little brown eyes.  And then the floods came.
“Margot, what is the matter?’
“I don’t like that dress,” she sobbed. “It’s not the dress I wanted for my wedding dress…oh Mom!!! What do I do?”
 We all know purchasing a wedding dress is a final sale. And now… we have a dress to sell. And we have to find “THE DRESS” AGAIN!

What do you want? Why don’t you like it? …a million questions from mom.  “I want  you to make my dress, Mom. I want to use the lace from your dress, when you and Daddy got married.”
Needless to say, (as I write this now) it still brings tears to my eyes. I was so honored to have been asked to play such a precious part in my daughter’s wedding. Thrilled beyond belief…

I’ll always treasure her asking me to do this. So Margot and I studied patterns, searching for the style she wants. A new style: a ball gown.

I was so ecstatic. Every time she tried on dresses, I would ask her to try on the big ball gowns. She always felt overwhelmed in them, because she is only five feet tall, so the dress ended up being five feet by five feet!! But when she put them on, I would always cry, because she looked like a little cake topper! 

 At this point in my mom’s life she could not see well enough to be able to help me with the sewing details. And at 92 years of age, she suffers from macular degeneration.  But she is such an amazing woman! She had taught me so much when I was a young girl that I could still hear her voice instructing me every step of the way.

 We ended up purchasing one pattern for the bodice from a source for out of print patterns off the Internet, and merged it with a pattern for the big ball gown skirt from Vogue Out of Print Patterns.  I put the two together and made adjustments to fit her little five-foot, 98-pound, 20-inch waist frame and added 60 inches to the back of the dress for the train. The fabric was purchased off the Internet, as well. I knew just enough from talking with my mother about the fabric types and finishes. I went with a gorgeous duchess silk satin. The style was scoop neck, sleeveless with a very fitted bodice and very full ball gown skirt—12 yards worth!

We had several people comment on the fact that the dress wasn’t strapless and how it’s unusual these days to see a bride in a dress with straps. This was just a classic style, I guess.  Just like Margot. Since my wedding dress was covered with alencon lace, I took the lace off and applied it to the bodice of her dress. I took the buttons off of the sleeves of my dress and sewed them to the back of the dress—21 tiny, Priscilla gown buttons, loops and all. 

 To add a little fun to the dress, we created her petticoat out of six layers of tulle. The first two layers were ivory, the next two were Tiffany blue, the top layers were ivory again. So when she picked up her dress, the petticoat showed the different layers and colors. I made her garter out of tulle with some of the other lace pieces from my dress. The veil was the original veil that I wore in 1978. Perfect match for the dress fabric, the lace and for Margot.

She was set. She was a beautiful, classic bride.