This christening dress I made 37 years ago recently came back to me for minor repairs. I made it for my niece Nina's baptism, and she's going to turn 37 soon. She wore it, my daughter Allie wore it, and my sister's younger daughter Maria (Nina's sister) also wore it. Since then, it's been in my sister Linda's care. Now that Nina is expecting her second child, a girl, my sister thought it would be good to bring the gown out so it can be worn by the next generation.
I used a commercial pattern to make the gown--maybe it was a mid-80s Butterick. It included iron-on transfers for the embroidery. In retrospect, I wish I'd made a more gender-neutral gown so my nephew and my son could've worn it too, but I think when my nephew was born--he's the oldest of my and my sister's kids-- I wasn't the sewing enthusiast I came to be.
The gown has held up really well. The fabric is some kind of cotton-poly blend, and it has stayed white. The lace is nylon and has yellowed, but not bad for an almost 40-year-old garment. The tiny repair I had to make was to sew up the shoulder seams, which probably came unsewn from the weight of hanging on the hanger.
I love these pearl buttons. They're decorative, and the opening is actually velcro. It took me a long time to learn to make buttonholes and I avoided them for years. The dress has a long sewing story to tell.
