It has been more than a month since Vinny’s baptism. The sweet smell of chrism has worn off his head, but the waters of baptism have left their indelible mark.
One of my “Heart Preparation” projects was to sew this fifth child of mine a baptism gown. I wanted it to be traditional, yet still “masculine” without going the mini tuxedo route. I kept the fabric simple – batiste and cotton from the Martha Pullen shop, and I used a pattern with pleats and pintucks instead of the more feminine gathers and ruffles. It was surprisingly difficult to find a pattern that had straight sleeves instead of puffed or gathered, but Simplicity 2457 did the trick. My great great grandmother was a lace maker and the French lace on this gown alludes to that part of our family history.
As it turns out, my final “nesting urge” was finishing this gown. I was stitching up the hem of it during the earliest part of my labor. He was born the next day.
Neat Trick Project Taught Me: Double needles make excellent pintucks. The tension from bobbin thread puckers up the fabric between the two lines of stitching.
Unfortunately, the pattern called for a deeper tuck than the needles made, and my bodice was wider than it should have been. I didn’t realize it until I was adding the skirt on. It would have been nice to have the final width of the bodice indicated on the pattern to avoid this problem.
I also made the a slip and bonnet from the pattern as well, but Vinny never really wore the bonnet.
Used just once, the gown will be tucked away for the next baby. Another son, another nephew, a grandson? It will be exciting to see what God has in store for us.
We love you, Vincent. Welcome to the family.
