Old socks

Recently I spent the afternoon making sock clothes for Barbie Dolls. Making sock clothes is a practice that came from my childhood- then moved up to when I myself was a mom and my daughter and I would rifle through the dreaded mismatched sock basket for something fun enough to turn into clothes. Now, her daughter and I assemble a handful of dolls, and also gather old socks (all these years later, it’s fun that the socks are nearly all colorful and with artwork)

They may have all started out life as a “Barbie” but they are so much more now.
We have the usual three names right out of the gate, Lucy (of course), Cindy and Betsy. The others we try to name but she’s always stuck on these three and eventually naming the rest isn’t important enough for us to worry about.

I’ve often wondered why there’s so much controversy about Barbie. I grew up with loads of Barbie dolls (they say the average girl has a dozen, I believe that to be a low estimate) I did not grow up believing my waist would be disproportionality small or my chest perky and big- I just wanted to play! I think back, and I don’t recall my Barbies coming with pre assigned jobs, although it’s possible they did. If so, that pre assigned job listed on the box would have gone in the trash with the twist ties and cardboard. I probably made them mostly Mommies~ unapologetically.

I guess my dreams were suppose to be Astronaut by day, flamingo dancer by night.
But they weren’t. I think that the sock clothes maybe put it all in perspective. I can’t be sure but my Barbie (who was probably named Kacie…my equivalent of Lucy) was busy hunting for the perfect sock’s to upscale into a posh jumper, a three holed shirt, or If I found an old tube sock of my brothers that wasn’t a dingy mess, a long gown. Kacie wasn’t too worried that the other girls at the party had on the latest colorful gown that Mattel put out- my Kacie, she was sensible and fun. Unique in her quirkiness, she entered every party confident in her sock wrap designs.

I’ll bet that she pursued her passions- she went on to have a house full of kids, she continued with her frugality and made sock clothes for each of them. She met Skipper for coffee or a margarita a couple times a week, she was a good neighbor and a good friend.

So this practice of sock clothes served me well. It served my daughter well, and it’s serving my granddaughter well. We discuss the up-cycle angle and the fact that we are saving a lot of money by not running out to buy new clothes. She has taken it a step further (because my Grandchildren are above average) and has figured out how to create shoes and handbags~ Not once during our clothes making did I get the impression that she will have a damaged outlook on herself. Never does she mention wanting to look just like them, only that designing clothes is fun and later that she might want to have whatever job it is that you can lay on the board with wheels and go under cars. I tell her that’s called a mechanic, and they work on cars. She smiles broadly, shaking her head yes.

The world is her oyster.

Till next time- Erin