Today I rousted myself early and went to the fabric store with my mother.

What was I thinking?

We were actually going to go to the one close to her house, since Lil Sis got her wisdom teeth extracted yesterday, and my mom didn't want to leave her for long. To appease her guilty conscience, she took the cell phone with her. But the store was closed, not to open for another half-an-hour. My mom frowned at another sign on the door.

"No cell phones?" she harrumphed. "Why? Am I going to disturb the fabric?"

I suggested that we could go to the big outlet in Hudson in the time it took to wait for the closer one to open, and she agreed. ...she never turns down a free trip to the fabric store. (Besides, Hudson is quite ritzy - cell phone usage is a given.)

This store is huge. I got lost in there once. No, really - I did. I was wandering around in Notions and couldn't find my way out. If you have some craft thing you want to do, this is the place to go. Anyway, we went there to look at patterns. My mother is making my wedding dress, and she wanted to get some patterns that she could piece a dress together out of.

When my mother first said, "And I'll make the wedding dress, since it will be much cheaper that way," I smiled at her.

"You don't need to make my dress," I said. "There will be lots of other stuff for you to help with."

Now, I said that because I didn't want her to feel put upon. I didn't want her to feel overwhelmed, since that's how she will end up feeling. Boy... Did I screw up.

Her lower lip quivered. "You don't want me to make your dress?" Quiver. Quiver.

My father shot me a look.

I stammered, "Well, no, that's not what I meant..."

Quiver.

"What I mean is, I didn't want you to feel like you had to do it. I mean, you're going to be busy enough as it is."

The lip stopped quivering. "Oh, but I want to make your dress. You're my baby... I've been dreaming about doing this for a long time."

So, there you have it. Mama's making my dress.

After dredging through countless pattern books, we think we've found most of the components for the dress. We have the skirt, the train, the sleeves, the bodice... All I need now is a neckline. I know exactly what I want, but my mother can't figure out how to do it without a pattern.

Of course, the danger is that this will look really silly once we get it all together. So my mom's going to make it out of some cheap muslin first, just to see how it hangs and all. Then, if it looks right, she'll make it for real.

Somehow, I have a feeling I'm going to be very sick of this dress by the time I actually get married.