Before we went to Ethiopia I had planned on getting several dresses for Mawerdi to wear over the years, it was a necessity! However once I got there I realized that I needed some dresses as well. Unfortunately the ones I found were way overpriced with "white tax" (baby's words)! When we first started looking at the dresses in the garment district we were told 800 bir for everything, when we returned to purchase them we were told they were now 2400 bir! So we decided to go to the Merkato to pick out our own fabric, and then we would take them to Baby's mother's tailor to get them custom made.
I couldn't believe that I was able to pick out my own fabrics and design my own dresses! It was very fun and exciting to see the finished product! This tailor was amazing and very talented!
Every couple of days we would check in with the tailor to see how everything was going, especially once we found out we had an embassy appointment. We didn't have much time to get all four dresses complete due to the late notice. You can see my blue dress hanging in the window while he is working on the other three. I had confidence that they would be done in time, and two hours before we were to be at the airport we stopped by again, they were complete and beautiful!
Here are the final products...The Ethiopian flag colored one is simply amazing and my favorite! This picture doesn't do it justice, he embroidered a cross down the entire dress as well as a Lion of Judah on the back.
And here are Pete's shirts...because of course he has to have some traditional outfits as well!
“You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit those situations”
~ Zig Ziglar
Wow! A beautiful well dressed family!!
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