Baptism Dress

It's been an exciting time at our house.  My daughter just had her eighth birthday.  In our church when you turn eight you can choose to be baptized.  She's worked diligently over the last year to prepare herself for baptism and has looked forward to it. (Learn more about LDS baptism here.)

I wanted to make her a special white dress for her special day.  We went to the fabric store several months ago to look at fabric and patterns.  I had a lot of requirements for this dress. I wanted to make something simple but beautiful.  I wanted my daughter to love it and be something that fit her style.  I also wanted a pattern that wasn't overly complicated because I had a lot on my plate at the time.  It's kind of silly but I fretted and worried about making this dress way too much.  After a long period of deciding and then re-deciding I finally settled on McCall's pattern M5795.  I used this same pattern to make my daughter a flower girl dress for my sister wedding a few years ago.   It's rare that I use the same pattern twice but I love it when I do.  After I've made a dress once I have a better idea of how it all comes together and looks in the end and so the second time I can confidently make changes to the dress to make it look how I want.  This time around I re-drew the sleeve pattern to make it more of a cap sleeve, removed the darts in the bodice, and took some of the fullness out of the skirt.  I also added two inches of satin to the hem.

I wanted to take some pictures of my daughter in her dress to have as a keepsake.  We've had a record breaking winter so even in April it was chilly and the trees were bare.  She braved the cold though and we got a few pictures outside.

You can get a better idea of the whole dress here with the satin along the bottom.  The freshwater pearls she got from her grandpa added a nice touch to the overall look too.

Anyone who knows my daughter knows how much she loves her hair in a pony tail.  She won't let anyone but her immediate family see her with her hair down.  This was the first time I curled her hair with a curing iron.  After completing the first curl her mouth hung open in awe and I had no problem convincing her to wear her hair down after that.  Sure made me smile!

I can't believe how big my little girl has gotten!  I just love these sweet pictures.