Beautiful Baptism 2009 - "G"

 My mother in law reminded me that I should include my niece's baptism dress, so let me relay the story. For privacy's sake her name will be "G"...

G was turning 8, and her mother was contemplating what kind of baptism dress she should wear. I jumped on that opportunity and asked if I could make her dress. G's Mother said of course you can! (woohoo!). So I sketched a few ideas and then we modified it to how her mom wanted it to look. Then we went looking in the old closets to see if we could find some fabric. We found one of G's mother's old wedding dresses (she had bought several before she decided on the one she got married in). This particular one was unique because it had magnolia embroidery all along the bottom of the dress. It would be so pretty to use it for this baptism dress. Here is a closeup of the magnolia embroidery:

My daughter was maybe 8 months old at the time, and so we made a trade that I can work on G's baptism dress if G's Mother could watch my baby while I work. The Mom agreed, and to work I went, ripping fabric and measuring G several times. I thought that the detail at the bottom of the dress would be perfect for the sleeves as well, and putting them on I ended up making sleeves that look like mini wings! Here are her sleeves:

I also went a little sew crazy with the details, because I knew she wanted buttons down the back, but I think G's mom had meant only four or five. But the original wedding dress had buttons down the back, and on a whim I decided to try doing the same for the baptism dress...Yes it is a pain to put on, but once it's on it's gorgeous!

As G's mom and I agreed, we wanted to have changeable sashes. A white sash for her baptism, but a colored sash if she wanted to wear the dress to a different occasion like a wedding. I also bought flowers to be in the back of the sashes. The white sash has Magnolias to match her embroidery!

 Back of dress with white sash

 Front of dress with white sash

 Back of dress with blue sash

front of dress with blue sash.

When everything was finished, I tried it on G, and found out I had measured the skirt a few inches too long! The dress touched the floor! What were we going to do? I couldn't hem the bottom of the dress because of the unique embroidery, and the skirt was already hand sewn inside the bodice. G's mom thought it would be a good idea to give G some heels, and that would lift the dress up off the floor. I remember G being so excited she was going to wear her first pair of heels (children's thick heels of course!). Thankfully it worked!

G looked SO beautiful on the day of her baptism. We put her hair up and fastened little pearls in her hair. She looked like a little princess. It was a fun experience, I will always be proud of my niece deciding to enter the waters of baptism and to have the Holy Ghost as a companion with her always.