Blessing Dress

As I've been deciding on what I want for my daughter's christening/ blessing dress, I was inspired by these turn of the century christening gowns.   Back when baby boys and girls wore dresses in photos.

{photo source}                                                   {photo source}

It's been funny expecting a baby girl, I find I'm not drawn to ruffles, lace, satin--the frills so much.

I was telling my mom I'd have pictures of the blessing dress on the blog today and she said she was excited to see it, and I told her it's nothing to write home about, pretty basic and plain jane.  She wouldn't find hours of beading or layer upon layer of chiffon ruffles in to this dress.  I guess the girl is starting out frumpy like her mom, if babies can be frumpy.

But I like the simplicity, and it ended up what I wanted for my little girl. 

I guess in my mind I was thinking more in the realm of making an heirloom that she'll hopefully keep for her own daughters and pass it down over the generations, and so I guess the minimal detail seemed more "timeless" to me?

So it's simple and basic.

I knew I wanted white eyelet.

I really love eyelet fabric.  It's usually just an embroidered cotton with holes usually in the design.

I found an eyelet with the embroidery more of a matte finish that I liked better than the shiny finish.

 The small detail on the bodice I added was tiny vertical pintucks.

I had a hard time deciding on the sleeves.  At first I planned to sew little puffed sleeves.

But after looking at a lot of the older vintage photographs, decided to make the loose, 3/4 length simple straight sleeve.  Hopefully it looks right with a baby in there.

So I guess I lied.  There is satin in this outfit.  I got some of these tiny satin buttons off ebay.  I bought a random 2 lbs of buttons for $5.00 a while ago, and these little goodies were among the stash.

There's no way I was making tiny button holes, then trying to button the back of a dress on an infant, so they are decorative.  The dress really closes with a strip of velcro.  Kind of ghetto, but easy on mom and the baby.

These buttons seem so small, they remind me of Pollyanna where they have to button her shoes with that weird hook.  The spats I think they're called?  Maybe I have the wrong movie entirely.  I haven't watched Pollyanna for at least a decade.

So together with the blessing shoes, the outfit is complete.

I thought about a bonnet, but didn't really love the bonnets, and so I don't know what I'll do for her head.

Little white headband with a bow on it?  Hair accessories--another area I feel totally out of my realm with a little girl.