I read this paragraph this morning, and immediately smiled and re-read it, and re-read it again. Perfection!
"It was one of the pinafores Saffy had sewn when Merry first arrived, made from a lovely piece of Liberty fabric ordered years ago, not because Saffy had a project in mind, but because it was simply too beautiful not to possess. It had languished ever since in the sewing cupboard, waiting patiently for Saffy to find it a purpose. And now she had."
From "The Distant Hours", by Kate Morton (who also wrote "The Forgotten Garden", which has been discussed in this forum). page 353.
The book is a Gothic novel about an eccentric English family in a castle during WWII and the child who lived with them during the war, with a parallel story set in the 1990s that continues the family saga a half-century on with the daughter of the child they'd sheltered. (How's that for a nutshell encapsulation?)
Hope I've whet your curiosity!