tale of a deb dress (subtitle: ash & tears)

We downsized 14 months ago from a 4 bedroom + study home to a 3 bedroom + no study town house, which I love!  As you know I'm not a hoarder but who knew someone like me could accumulate so much stuff?!

Yesterday high on my agenda was getting my garage sorted out. Finally.

My son has half the garage for his xbox, PS3 and a place for him and his mates to hang out so it leaves a limited amount of room.  Valuable real estate as I call it.

I'm very happy with what I achieved in there yesterday.

Then it came to my deb dress, I posted this pic on Instagram and FB yesterday.


I'm being brave! This is my Deb Dress from 1988, my house bunt down in 1990, note the ash on the dress! It was one of only a few things spared. I hadn't been able to throw it away as my Nanny bought it for me. But I have this sense that's it's ok for me to let it go. Must. Be. Brave.


Now I don't know who I was kidding when I thought I could throw away this dress.  I mean really.

Given it's survived a fire and that I still have it after 24 years I think discarding it is NOT an option.

I had so much love from everyone saying keep it and ways for me to keep a small part of it, such as frame a piece soot and all to cutting a small piece off to add to a family quilt.  But I've decided to keep the whole dress.  For now.  It was far too traumatic for me to part with it.  Tears and all.

My wedding dress I sold without a moments hesitation as my Nanny made my son's Christening gown, bonnet and pillow from left over fabric and beading from my dress.  I'm far more attached to that than I ever was to the wedding gown.  I mean that in a nice way!

I clearly remember the day Nanny and I went shopping for the dress.  I was down on school holidays from Queensland and it was important to her that she buy me the dress.  Nanny lived in a country town just out of Canberra in a place called Queanbeyan.  People from Canberra tend to mock Queanbeyan believing it to be a poor second cousin.  Which is a shame really.  I LOVE the place.  So many wonderful memories, especially when people say they're 'going down the street'.

On a side note I just remembered that Nanny took me shopping for my first ever bra, down the street, at Grace Brothers!

Anyway, we went out early, it was the first dress I tried on, but we both agreed to check out the other bridal shops in town.  Of course we ended going back to the very first dress.  It was a whopping $900 which was a LOT of money back in 1988, but Nanny said I had to have it, given that it was a perfect fit.  She put it on layby and dutiful paid it off over time.

This is the dress in all it's glory as it should be shown (excuse my 18 year old self with really big 80's hair, thanks to a spiral perm, and the poor quality of photo, no digital photos back then!)

My son goes to the same school I did, so he gets to see my year group deb photo every time he walks into assesmbly.  Quite funny really!

Thank you Nanny for making such wonderful memories.

What can't you throw out no matter how much you TRY?