Nan's Nappies Custom Embroidery & More: Dedication Dresses

A friend, Joy, has two precious little granddaughters. These little girls were going to be dedicated to the Lord. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it is based on Hannah and Samuel in the book of 1 Samuel in the Bible.

I'll inject a little trivia about me. My parents were two of the six founding members of their church in 1957. That is the year I was born. In 1958, I was the first baby dedicated at Grace Baptist Church . I am happy to say my parents are still living in the same house they lived in at that time and doing pretty well for their ages. Dad will be 94 in a few more weeks and Mom will be 91 in February.

Joy made her granddaughter's dedication dresses and I had the privilege of embroidering them. They were gorgeous! The little girls are cousins.

She chose an Imperial Batiste ( 65% polyester, 35% pima cotton) fabric in white. It is so soft to the touch but had wonderful body for draping. The lace on the sleeves was overlapped cotton cluny lace. The lace around the bottom edge of the skirt was an antique 3"cotton lace with a flower motif. The back of the bodice was closed with 3 pearlized shank buttons.

At first, Joy thought she wanted all white embroidery. As she began choosing embroidery designs, she decided to go with a touch of pale pink and green. The results were stunning. as you can see in the photos below.

The bodice.

The center front of the skirts.

This design was stitched repeatedly around the entire hem of the skirt.

This shows the embroidery around the hem of the skirt, the beautiful lace and the pleating.

This is the baby's long gown before she attached the sleeves.

This is the shorter version for the toddler.

She also made slips. We plan to embroider the names and dedication date on the slips. they are heirlooms that cn be passed down from generation to generation. With each use, the name and date can be added to the slip. The toddlers slip had crinoline added to add fullness.