Monday, October 6, 2014

The Baptismal Gown

It's finished.  At least I hope it is!  Last night I finished the last button hole and sewed on the last six buttons.  I'm not entirely sure about the neck being wide enough... although the top buttons are close enough together that I might just leave one unbuttoned if it does end up being too small.  I think it should be okay...  And so, here it is!  The Baptismal Gown:


And of course I had to show close ups of each full picture!

Here's the front:


And the back:


I wish the details of the lace on the sleeves showed up a bit better in these...


And lastly here are the hand sewed buttons and button holes.

It would have definitely gone much more quickly if the button foot on my sewing machine had fit, but I learned something!


The gown itself is made with a high quality "satin" 100% cotton.  Next I'm planning on making a light weight slip, also out of cotton and a jacket and bonnet out of the white dupioni silk that I have laying around!  I'm basing the jacket loosely on Patch's jacket, so I'm hoping it turns out like this:



 We'll see if I can pull it off before he arrives!  Either way at least the gown itself is done!




4 comments:

  1. I'm curious as to where the custom of putting little boys in long dresses came from. As a non-Catholic, we don't baptize infants, so I've always wondered about this Catholic tradition that some baby boys are put into long gowns! I see sweet little boy's suits, knickers, etc. for baptisms too but it does seem like a fair number of people use the dress. Thanks!

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  2. I'm not 100% sure, but my guess would be because back when the traditional style gown came into style all infant clothing was gender neutral as it had to be made before the baby was born and there was no way to know the sex of the baby before birth back then.

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  3. Beautiful! I can't wait to see it in action ; )

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  4. Thanks so much for providing a link about how to hand sew buttonholes. I especially loved the photo of the 1940's instructions! Then, seeing how it is done, and looking at the step by step was great.
    I don't do a lot of sewing anymore, and never, ever tried to make a hand sewn buttonhole, so this was fascinating to me. I might, just for fun, take a scrap piece of cloth and try it out myself.
    It's hard to see the detail on the buttonholes on the baptismal gown because of the white fabric but overall, it is really beautiful.
    God Bless. ~ Bonnie

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