Thursday, May 3, 2012

From wedding dress to christening gown: Part 3, The Reveal!

Even with a possible sewing disaster, I managed to get the christening gown finished, looking pretty good, and even managed to accessorize with some "historical" bits so that Mikey was wearing bits from his entire family.

I did take a short cut on attaching the bodice since time was running short, but I'll fix that if and when the time comes to use the CG again.  I'll also have to relocate the shoulder snaps:  I put them where the pattern indicated, but I found that they were too far away from the edge of the straps, so the fabric stuck up in an odd manner.

Here are some pictures of the CG without my little man:

And then with him:

Asleep in Church
Since both my mother and my MIL offered me my and my husband's CG's to wear (both were worn by multiple generations), I wanted to find a way to work various parts onto my son for the evening.  I took the bonnet from mine and some knit booties from his.

I also kept the beaded sash from my dress so that if the next wearer is a girl she can be a bit more jazzy.

Lessons learned from this project:
-It was smart to leave a month window for 6 hours of sewing.  Since I was sewing the snaps on at 9pm on Friday night before the christening, I obviously needed the cushion.
-I'm getting terribly sentimental.  I had to stifle quite a few tears during this project, both from fear of letting go and excitement for what was to come.
-When in doubt, go for the next size up.  It's hard to estimate how much your child is going to actually grow in a month, and I'm glad I went with my gut to go bigger than I thought he'd be--just in case.
-People are really nice to babies.  They even lend you sewing machines for your baby.
-I am definitely more of a McGuyver seamstress than, say, an Angela Lansbury one.  I do better figuring things out than following the directions.

You can see pictures of the baptism on the church's website.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, this is amazing! I love that you used your wedding dress fabric. I wanted to do that for my kid's too. It looks like you put tons of time and love into it! It'll be an heirloom to pass down!
    Thanks so much for linking up!

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  2. Glad to find this post! I am a first-time grandma, planning to make a gown for my soon to be born grandson, using my daughter-in-law's train. I am nervous for sure, and sewing and I are not best friends by any means.But I am looking forward to this project, and your post helped lots. Thank you!

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    1. Patsy, I'm so glad you found this useful! It was nerve racking to take my dress apart, but I'm so glad that I did. It was a great way to re-use my dress (and wonderful bragging rights, too!)

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