The most expensive coat hanger in the world.

Doesn’t look that expensive, does it?

As with many of the things in my cupboard, it has a story.

As you know, I have two little girls.  It was very important to my Nanna, their Great Nanna who was a staunch Lutheran lady from way back, that those two little girls be baptised.  With all the trimmings – big fancy dinner, fancy baptism dress, etc.  She was such a darling Nanna that I happily obliged.

My first daughter was baptised in the family baptism dress (there’s a whole other story about that dress that I will tell you about at the end of the post).  It barely fit her by the time we organised the baptism (can’t rush these things!), and it took so long for me to get my act into gear that she celebrated her first birthday on the same day. 

Needless to say, by the time I got my lazy backside into order  I organised the next baptism day, my second daughter was too large to fit in the family dress. I had my reasons for taking so long, my husband was away All The Time, I was fairly well raising two kids on my own, and we had to wait for the godmother to be able to come here from interstate for the weekend, and she has a busy, busy job.

So we needed an outfit for baby number two.  She was probably closer to two years old by the time we had her baptised, and that first dress was never going to fit.  Nanna, as you may remember was a wonder with embroidery and smocking, and she volunteered to make a dress. 

All I needed to do was buy the fabric and get a pattern.  So off I trot to the local spotlight with two kids in tow (one five years old, one two years old – imagine that in a craft shop).  I found the pattern easily.  The pattern said I needed three metres (to this day I don’t know why it was so much – but I am a rule follower) so I found two rolls of fabric I liked – one averaged price (perhaps $20 a metre) and one fabric that must have been spun by elves from gold that cost $75 a metre.

Ohhh no, I wasn’t going to spend that much money on a dress for a two year old, despite how important the day was.  So I put one roll back and took the other one to the counter.

And you know where this is going, of course.

The clerk cut the fabric, rang up the sale, and told me it was $250.  Yep, I had put the cheaper one back and brought the expensive one.   The fabric was cut, she was not letting me get away with it, the kids were beginning to rebel and I just wanted out of there.  So I bit the bullet, paid for it and bought it home.  I gave it to my nanna and made her swear to please, please not make a mistake when cutting out the pattern!  I wasn’t going back to get any more!

And this is what my eighty five year old nanna made my two year old daughter.

It’s really not the best of photos, but can I tell you, I cherish it.

So the reason the coat hanger is the most expensive in the world?  It was made with the left over $70 a metre fabric.

Sadly I have no photos of the day, because I was up the front holding the baby, and I gave my camera to my brother, who was totally useless and didn’t get a decent photo at all.  Brothers!

That’s the story of the most expensive coat hanger in the world.  The story of the family baptism dress?  When my husband’s grandmother died, we helped his Auntie clear out her house.  We had a six week old baby, but we drove over to offer some assistance.  In the cupboard was an outfit, clearly a christening dress.  The aunt didn’t know what it was from, but upon asking my husband’s mother, we found out that it was the dress that my husband had been baptised in forty years before. 

So it’s a special dress, and it’s waiting in the cupboard for the next generation. 

That’s it!  End of story!

Thanks for bearing with me.