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Another Christening Gown Made from Mother's Wedding Gown

Now that everyone is moving to Instagram, and away from Facebook I guess I'd better just come back to my blog.  I can't add the Instagram app to my Iphone until I upgrade to the newest operating system, and I can't do that without deleting some apps to free up memory.  I NEED all the apps I have already, and since I don't know if I NEED Instagram, I guess I will just live without it.  (Third World Problems)

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I finally finished a couple of christening gown orders that had me stressed out.  The first one was for a friend of my daughter and if she wasn't pleased it would be awkward.  She wanted a traditional gown for a boy, but wanted it to be unisex for additional children.  Her wedding gown was very pretty and completely lace.  The finished product turned out nice, but maybe a bit more frilly than what she had in mind. 

Because this gown is to be used by all babies born to the couple, I embroidered the parents' monograms and their wedding date, as well as the first baby's monogram and birthdate (which you can't see in this pic) on the slip.  They can add monograms for each additional baby.

 

Hard to tell here (with the gown hanging from a plant hanger in the window....) but the lace overlay is ruched, front and back, so it appears to be scalloped.  The bodice, sleeves and underskirt are satin.

 

The other order that I couldn't wait to get in the mail initially sounded like a really special project.  A grandmother wanted me to make outfits for her soon to be born twin granddaughters.  She was sending her wedding gown and the other grandmother was sending hers and I would use them both to make the two outfits.  The new outfits would be presented to the mom-to-be as a surprise at her baby shower.  The grandmothers' dresses were 70's era dresses that had very little usable fabric or trims, due in part because the materials used weren't the best quality to start with and because they hadn't been stored well.  One was dotted swiss and due to the discoloration the only way it would work was to use it as an overlay, over a color such as pink.  But the grandmother wanted all white.  I worked hard to clean and lighten up the trims to use them.  In the end I had to buy fabric and just embellish the gowns.  Grandmother didn't want bonnets so instead I made bibs using the dotted swiss over pink batiste (in the pic it looks peach for some reason), with the babies' monograms in pink.  They turned out pretty in the end and I was very happy to get them out in the mail.  (For the life of me I can't figure out why the pics below won't format correctly in blogger but you get the idea.)