Julianna's baptism day and dress

My granddaughter, Julianna, turned eight and was baptized as a member of The Church of Latter-day Saints during our last visit to Arizona.

 It was a special day which she had been looking forward to for some time.

She had many of her friends and family come to support her including this "best" friend.

I love being present for the baptisms of my grandchildren.  It is a truly special time.

I have made baptism day dresses for four of my granddaughters so far.

Grandpa Glen was also happy for his Julianna.

Grand parenting is an amazing adventure.

Julianna with her sweet mother, Susan.

It was a special day for Julianna and her family.

Both sets of grandparents had traveled far to share her day.

And they were not the only ones.  It worked out well that Rachel's wedding and Julianna's baptism were on the same weekend.

Here are some closeups of her dress.  I added a jacket because it would be December.  On Friday at the wedding, it was 75 + degrees.  After a big wind Friday night, it was a chilly Saturday at 55 degrees.  I was glad that I had included the jacket.

Embroidery on the jacket.

Each baptism dress is white and has smocking details with a bit of color.

The smocking was made with the same colors as the embroidery on the jacket.

Crystal buttons on the back and a back buttoned belt.  She seemed to really like her dress and I was happy to make it for her.  It was a great day Julianna!

Sadie's Baptism Dress

It is common practice in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to baptize children at age  eight as they are thought to be accountable for their actions at this age.  I try to honor this special occasion with a new dress for my grand daughters.  Grand daughter number three was baptized last Saturday in Arizona  which is also where I finished up the final touches on her dress a couple of days earlier.

The dresses include some English smocking, are mostly white, and are selected from my collection of Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazines.  Sadie chose this dress from Issue 90.  I had to make a few adaptations as my pleater will only pleat 16 rows at a time and the pattern called for 24 rows.

I used satin for this dress as was shown in the magazine.  I will never use satin again.  It was so hard to roll it through the pleater and I had to back smock the entire piece to hold the pleats in place.  I also had to top stitch the scallop overlay on the hem to keep the scallops, well, scallops.

The blue satin and matching piping was buttery and soft in feel but also hard to sew. Sadie really liked touching that blue fabric.

I was a bit disappointed in my final product, but when I took it to Sadie it fit perfectly and she made the dress.  All that smocking was done as I listened to General Conference.

Sadie loved it!  And I love Sadie!!