Another Baptism Dress In The Books
/One of my favorite things is when I get a phone call from one of my “littles” – who are all growing up way too fast – asking if I will make their Baptism dress. This is the fourth one now! How can that be? So we begin with a little meeting to discuss what they want, and get measurements.
They either have a photo of a dress they like, or pictures of certain parts of dresses they want to combine, or a drawing they have drawn themselves to design the dress of their dreams. We discuss the accessories they want to add to it, such as a sash or a belt, a silk flower pin, and their shoes. I love how their mother’s let them make these choices! So far they’ve all chosen well! Then the hunt begins.
I scour the internet in search of the perfect fabrics. Sometimes it comes from New York. Sometimes it comes from San Francisco. Sometimes it comes from Michigan. This time it came from one of my favorite places here in Utah, “Lace & Co.” https://laceco.com I’ve worked with Sue Mohlman for years now on many custom sewing projects. When I couldn’t find the perfect lace I was looking for online, I called her. She has an online store, but she is close enough that she lets me come to her home and choose from the narrowed down selections we do while texting back and forth. The trick to finding the perfect lace fabric, at least for me and the dress recipient, is that is does not itch! We all know there’s nothing worse than an itchy uncomfortable dress no matter how pretty it is! The fabric and lace we ended up with checked off every box!
This time I did things a little backward. Normally I make the pattern first, and then buy the fabric. However, this dress was a pretty basic design, and I knew I just needed enough length to gather into the bodice, I would use what was left above the skirt for the bodice and sleeves. You can only get away with doing this on little girl’s dresses. Bigger dresses with longer skirts will need extra yardage to allow for the bodice and sleeves. I ended up getting four yards of lace, 4 yards of lining, and 6 yards of the eyelash lace trim to go around the hem and the bottom of the sleeves. I ordered a crystal medallion for the ribbon sash on Etsy, but when it came, the quality was so poor I couldn’t use it. That’s the down-side of ordering things online, you never know what you’re going to get. But once again, Sue came to the rescue and had some gorgeous Austrian crystal medallions. Finding nice quality double-face satin is also not easy. I found this at one of my favorite new finds on a “Secret Life In Salt Lake Day” – at “Le Petite Maison” in Draper, Utah. I needed a 1 ½” width, and the quality of this ribbon is perfect!
It’s always a relief to have all the necessary supplies gathered and I am finally able to begin the dress. There’s a mental process that goes on in my mind for every project I do, that once all the supplies are gathered, I only have to depend on myself to get something done and that brings a feeling of relief! It’s getting harder and harder to find quality sewing fabrics, notions, and supplies. However, if you search long and hard enough, you will find them!
I start by making a pattern using 4 mil clear plastic. I get this by the roll in the paint department at Walmart. It makes the BEST patterns. You can draw on it using a black Sharpie marker, and if you make a mistake or want to move a line you’ve drawn, all you have to do is wipe it off with an alcohol prep pad!
You can also add fullness into the pattern by cutting and spreading it open and taping another piece of plastic in where the fullness needs to go. This is a trick I learned while working with the Olympics on costumes for opening and closing ceremonies in 2001.
Once the plastic pattern is made, I fit it to the dress recipient, make any adjustments, and then I’m ready to cut it out of the fabric/lace. As you can see, most of the fitting is done BEFORE the dress is even cut out, there’s so much to figure out and design before you can cut one thing or sew one stitch! Once it’s cut out, the sewing is generally the easy part.
I start with the bodice, and then do another fitting to make sure everything still fits now that it’s fabric and not plastic. On this dress I made a couple minor adjustments to the pattern before I cut it out of the fabric. I lengthened the front of the bodice and shortened the back to create an even parallel waistline. I also added ½” to the shoulder width. Brynnlee is tiny, but is built like a Romanian gymnast – broad shoulders, and a tiny body.
The skirt came next. I like to use the least amount of seams as possible when I’m using netting or lace. Thankfully, I bought enough fabric that I only had to do one seam in the skirt up the center back. This dress is also fully lined. The bodice is totally enclosed on the inside, and there are no raw seams anywhere. The waistline seam is enclosed inside the bodice lining, and the one seam up the back of the skirt is sewn using a “French Seam”, which means it too is totally enclosed with no raw edges. Did I mention this seam is my favorite of all seams? Yes, I’m crazy, I have a favorite seam! :) The sleeves are sewn in, trimmed, and then bound with a piece of lace, cut on the bias.
Brynnlee came back one more time to mark the hem, and make sure the center back seam was just right to insert the zipper. This is the first high-low hem I’ve ever done in all my years of sewing. It gave me a little anxiety cutting up into that lovely Chantilly lace from France! The lining had to be cut shorter than the lace and then I did a rolled hem in that.
The lace skirt and sleeves were finished with a lovely scalloped eyelash lace trim. Brynnlee was adamant the trim have an eyelash edge on it, just like the picture she found online of the dress she wanted. After I got the trim sewn on, the bottom edges of the skirt and sleeves had to be carefully trimmed to match the scallop of the lace trim without cutting any of the eyelashes off the scalloped trim.
One thing I haven’t mentioned until now, is that I press every seam as I sew. This is one of the tricks of the trade! This can make the difference between your finished article looking “homemade” or “handmade”! You have to be very careful when pressing delicate fabrics as they can melt if the iron is too hot, so I ALWAYS do a test piece on a scrap before I touch the iron onto the actual piece of clothing. I may or may not have learned this the hard way once many many many years ago. But that is a story I don’t ever want to have to re-tell, just trust me, always test a scrap first! The zipper went in just as it should, and then I hand sewed the crystal medallion to the double-face satin ribbon sash. I like to cut my ribbon on an angle. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it also helps prevent it from fraying. To be extra safe, I ran a small bead of “Fray Check” liquid fabric sealer to the cut edges of the ribbon.
The dress turned out just as she envisioned, and another baptism dress is in the books! We ordered four pairs of shoes and sent back the ones that didn’t work. The sparkly gold ones she chose with the sassy little heel and oval crystal buckle match her spunky personality!
That’s one of my favorite things about this entire process. The outcome matches each one of my “littles” personalities perfectly!
They are strong little spirits who know exactly what they want in life, and that includes how they want their baptism dresses to look.
They have a desire to Choose The Right, and to follow their Heavenly Father. They all LOVE Jesus, and seek for His LIGHT!
Since baptism is the first covenant they choose to make with our Heavenly Father, I want them to feel as special as they are – Daughters of our Heavenly Father who LOVES them!!!
They glow with LIGHT as they prepare for this sacred decision in their lives. It is my hope and dream for them to ALWAYS REMEMBER who they are and WHOSE they are!
Now go and fly my beautiful littles!!! I absolutely LOVE watching you grow! Go out and LIGHT the world each and every day!!!
Love Ya More Than Life Itself, Grandma Les :)