"Authentically Vintage"

My good friend Janae' called me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would do her a big favor... She wanted me to make a blessing dress for her beautiful new granddaughter (1st girl. 1st grandchild!), out of her 25+ year old wedding dress. Well I really love to sew, and I especially love to sew blessing dresses and baptism dresses, and I was up for a challenge, and so for that very moment, I lost all of my senses and said, "I'd love to"... little did I know how hard it was going to be to cut apart someone else's wedding dress and the stress I would feel to make it into something pretty and special and everything they would hope it would be... Yikes!!
The wedding dress sat on the table in the sewing room for a few days, until I got up the courage to just. do. it. I was so stressed out that I didn't even take a picture of that first cut or any pictures of all of the steps of making this heirloom treasure, but I really think it turned out beautiful. I knew it did, when Janae' first saw it and held it and there were tears in her eyes. I think this dress is what you would call "authentically vintage" and I can't wait to see pictures of precious Reese Elizabeth on her blessing day, wearing her special dress that was made out of her grandmother's wedding dress with lots of love (and a few gray hairs)...

Janae' and her handsome husband Keith on their wedding day.


Reese's blessing dress was made out of the satin from the skirt of Janae's dress and the ruffles were made from strips cut from her train and then after finishing each side of the strips, gathering them and making them into ruffles. The lace is the trim that was on the train.


The pretty pearl buttons were from Janae's dress too.


Thanks for trusting me to do it Grandma 'Nae! (I loved it so much, I had a hard time handing it back to you...)