Esme's September Aster

The 'bers have arrived!  I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of my favorite four months of the year, and especially this September.  Its my birthday month, and this one is a landmark year.  I turn 65.  I never thought I'd feel comfortable saying those words, but things change as you get "up there".  I'm upright.  I'm walking.  And I'm enjoying my life, so what is there to be squeamish about?

SIXTY-FIVE used to sound ancient.  It was the age when people born before the boomers, retired.  It was a time when you became an official SENIOR CITIZEN.  Well, AARP has been sending me bulletins in the mail for years now, and the only real change is that as of September the first, I'm on Medicare.   Okay.  Now I'm beginning to get squeamish.  The only important thing to me these days, is living the best life I can - while I'm still upright.  So, this September is going to get celebrated big time.

If you recall, last September I celebrated the month with Little Red Riding Hood.  I loved it!  I had so much fun doing this.  Making Little Red Riding Hood doll clothing, posting vintage illustrations from the fairytale on Facebook, collecting some rare LLRH ephemera, and so on.  I was actually having trouble thinking of what to do this year, but I knew that Esme, at least, would have to have a new botanical dress, and that it should be the Aster.

Morning Glory is also associated with September, and I may yet try one, but the Aster has long been the flower of September. 

I think it was upon completing Esme's Aster last month, in anticipation of sharing it this month, that I decided to celebrate the month with Symbols of September.  And so we begin.

 

"The name Aster was derived from the Greek word for "star", and in the past it was believed that the perfume from burning the leaves of the plant could drive away evil spirits."  As a nighttime star-gazer, this appeals to me.  A closet gypsy, I love the idea of driving away evil spirits.  

This little flower gown was a challenge to design.  The aster has a trillion petals, and I wasn't sure how this would all go down.  In the long run, I created the gown as I went along and for what its worth, its Esme's Aster.

She wears especially tall leafy boots as the leaves of the plant are thin and long.  

I made her a little hat representing the bud of the aster flower.  The design was created by observing botanical drawings of the aster bud.

The panties, or base of the flower retains its long green casings or leaves as the flower blooms, so I added these to the waist of the bottoms.  This also gave the dress a bit more volume.  This alone, the adding of volume due to so many petals, was tricky to work around.

Each leaf and petal is machine stitched for stability.  This stitching also helps shape the pieces for display, such as curling them up.

September has just begun, and I'm working on a darling doll to share soon with you.  There may even be a second when she's done.  Either way, there is no shortage of inspiration and desire in keeping with the theme of Symbols of September.  

There is no better time of year, or season.  Even though we are in a heatwave right now, the air smells like autumn.  I can sense the change of seasons and anticipate all the fun that comes with them. Okay, I do love spring, but Autumn is the best.

To me, the end of summer begins the first of September.  It will always the time to return to school after Labor Day. But just for now, just for today, it is the time of flowers and Esme's September Aster gown is a symbol of "love and patience".

Enjoy every day of this magical time of year!

Love, Melissa