Magical Creature Lessons: #19

Remember who you used to be but keep growing

Dress by The Oldest Magical Creature & Nana: Author’s Photo

On this latest visit with The Magical Creatures, The Oldest asked me to help her make a dress for her American Girl Doll. Mommy had sent away for the pattern. So off we went — just the two of us — on an excursion to find just the right material and various notions to make her vision a reality.

All The Magical Creatures love fashion and The Oldest completely reveled in the task of mixing and matching colors to create an original design. As we shopped, I remembered what fun it was to walk amongst the bolts of fabric. It was a complete sensory experience — nothing like the on-ine shopping I’d been doing for the last two years! We touched the cloth, we gazed at the colors, and we smelled the new fabric smell.

In the end, we found just the right makings for just the right dress. The next day we sat down together to cut it out and figure out Mommy’s sewing machine.

I love teaching The Magical Creatures stuff I know. Not just because sharing knowledge with another generation is a psychological imperative — per Erickson — but because of all the process reminds me of.

When I taught them how to knit, I bought them all beginner knitting needles and a skein of variegated yarn. I remembered my six-year-old self sitting on my…