Laura,

What a wonderful poem! I’m so glad you kept so many of your mom’s things (including her hats!!). My memories of my own mother and her fashion sense are very strong. She sewed for herself as well as for all of us and was once featured in our local paper along with other women in a fashion show of home-sewn garments. My mother had made a suit from a Vogue pattern, which, at the time was considered a “step above” McCalls or Butterick. If I can find the clipping, I’ll send it to you.