Dual Perspicacity: The Blessing Dress or How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

The Blessing Dress or How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

I know what you're thinking people: Stacy must be sitting on her hands doing nothing, nothing! Or dead. Whichever.

Not so!

I'm totally a lazy blogger though.

Taking pictures.

So much work.

Editing pictures.

So much more work.

Writing.....well, I have been doing that, but more on that later.

Until then, you can read about this lovely blessing dress I made last month...which was clearly not for me. I have a boy, people - who is six months old (can you believe that? No? Me either.).

Why did I agree to this? Well, the story is that back in May, my ward had a cake and service auction to raise money for the youth's summer programs. I made a cake (natch) and offered my services as a seamstress for a little girl. A friend of mine won my services but held off on taking me up on it, knowing that I had just had a baby and not wanting to take up too much of my time. It was always on my mind though and I felt like I just needed to fulfill that obligation ASAP.

I got a call from my friend in November. She said she had the perfect opportunity for me to perform my service - her sister was in need of blessing dress - the blessing was on December 30th.

I was going to spend December in my hometown in Oregon, where I wouldn't have much to do otherwise so I agreed.

My friend's sister directed me to this blog post about a blessing dress she thought was just what she was looking for - the skirt part anyway. That post referenced this tutorial. The original post never says how the skirt was actually made, so I had to figure it out on my own. It turned out to be a bit more challenging than I had originally thought...

I drafted my own pattern for the bodice (which she wanted to be simple) using the measurements that I'd been given. This baby was premature so she was smaller than any of the patterns I had access to. I drafted my own pattern for the little sleeves as well (I use this tutorial), wanting to keep them light and airy, so I used the same chiffon I used for the ruffles. They were planning to have the baby wear a little sweater over the top of the dress and I wanted to cut down on fabric bulk (I used Taffeta for the bodice and skirt).

(Buttons, my arch nemesis.)

The ruffles were the most challenging aspect of the dress. There are twelve and each had to be hemmed all the way around. Easier said than done. I think the buttons are the scariest part to do, though - you mess those up and you've ruined the whole dress!

Overall, I think the project turned out well - and my friend's sister absolutely loved it!