Speaking of Christening Gowns...

my friend Kathryn will be giving a lecture on Christening Gown History. I wish I could go, but it's hours away from me. I offered to make a "sample" garment for her, though. She said to do something with lace. Yesterday (Sunday) I just spent the morning sewing and ignored the housework. I was amazed how quickly this came together!

The fabric is domestic dotted "Swiss". It is 100% cotton, but I bought it at a discount fabric store for $4/yd. It is really soft and nice.

The cotton laces were all from a box I got on ebay. I tried to choose lace/embroideries with a dot theme and I just mixed and matched. I still have to add ribbon to the insertions.

Here is the yoke. The pattern is the Baby Dresses from Old Fashioned Baby. I made a size newborn, but it looks more like 3 months to me. I used entredeux to attach the front and back skirts to the yoke and between any laces and embroideries. I modified the skirt to be all one piece. I could manage it because my fabric was 58" wide. So, the dress closes in the back with buttons and there are no underarm seams. The bottom fancy band is also continuous.

This is the fancy band. The lace in the middle that looks like 5 narrow laces sewn together is actually all one lace. Likewise the lace on the bottom is all one. The insertions will get white satin ribbon.

We also had a different kind of white stuff this morning- SNOW! We have had such a mild winter and haven't had snow on the ground in over a month. It has been over 70 degrees already. Today was a no school day!! It is already starting to melt, happily!!

I learned something on this dress. It went super-fast because I did NO planning, NO over-thinking. I just grabbed a pattern and a pile of lace and started cutting. And I LOVE it anyway!!