Girl in the Apple Dress

There are many versions of the song "There's a Brown Girl in the Ring." My favorite version was sung by a performer whose name I can't remember, but whom I heard at the Yorkville branch of The New York Public Library. My second favorite version can be found on Taj Mahal's folk-blues album for children, Shake Sugaree. It's a circle game song from the Caribbean, and it's quite catchy:

There's a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
There’s a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la la
There’s a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
She likes sugar
and I like plum.

Lucia picked up on the song when she was still singing "Tra ya ya ya ya," and the subject of "the girl in the apple dress" came up repeatedly as one of her verses. I told her that I would make her an apple dress when we found the right fabric. And so, here it is:



Lucia now wants a pink fluffy dress for her fairy princess costume. If I can follow the basic theme of the apple dress, I've got a shot. "Why not just buy an inexpensive princess costume?" you might ask. "They're in abundance." Well, yeah, but they don't keep people warm enough in the PNW in late October. It's enough of an affront already to have to wear a coat and boots with a princess costume.* I'm going to be on the lookout for fancy pink flannel.

*Not that I would know. Unlike the lucky dogs who got to be Princess Leia, Wonder Woman, or Audrey Hepburn, I had to dress up in a more practical manner. Over various years, I was a shepherdess, a witch, and Freya (the Norse Goddess of Spring and Love). You know, the usual. In all fairness, I was able to wear my shepherdess costume for several years afterward. It was both warm and decorative enough for impromptu dance recitals.