Christening Blanket from wedding dress

Last week I met up with a friend who happened to say that her grandson was being Christening this coming weekend and she wanted get a blanket made with parts of her wedding dress, but another friend hadn’t called her back yet.

I first wasn’t sure whether I should offer to help since I have too many projects of my own to do.

So, I picked up her wedding dress and started to panic as to whether I could make what she envisioned (if you know me up to now I have only made gifts for people and they usually don’t know what they are getting until it is done).

My friend wanted the top layer of her wedding dress to be the ruffle on the blanket and thought the lining of her dress could be used also.  Well, it turns out the lining was spotted so that wouldn’t work.

I then did a Pinterest and Google search and found that most Christening blankets were usually crocheted (i.e. not something slick that you would have to worry about holding a squirmy baby in).

So, I figured I would make one side of the blanket of slinky material and the other side of flannel (with the wedding dress material as the ruffle).

The top layer of the wedding dress was cut into strips and sewed together into a long strip (240 inches).  [240 inches allowed me to make a roughly 40″ x 40″ blanket.]  I then folded the strip in half and added a running stitch to hold the ruffle together for when I sewed it to the blanket.  Oh, and the pinning and adding the running stitch was done in the car while we traveled last weekend (otherwise, I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t get the blanket done in time).

I picked up a piece of cream flannel, a piece of white slinky material, a package of sharp needles and a package of pins for slinky material (since I never sew on slinky material).

The ruffle was sewn to the flannel (with a ton of pins holding it in place).

I then practiced stitching on a slinky / ruffle/ flannel sandwich scrap.  (I was actually surprised how easy it was to sew – no pulled threads, etc.)

Yesterday I sewed the three layers (flannel, ruffle, slinky material) together and topped stitched it so it the edges would not roll.  I then hand tacked the flannel and slinky material together in nine places so it would be stay together.

Last night I was able to give my friend the completed blanket.  She loved it!  (I was pretty proud of it, but I have to say that was a relief.)

She asked how much she owed me (we hadn’t talked about the cost) and I was happy to say that it was a gift.  (She said she will pay for my hot chocolate / iced tea the next time we meet at Starbucks.)

I have asked for a copy of a photo taken with the baby and the blanket this weekend.

Here is the photo I thought to take before I gave her the blanket.

So, what special project have you worked on lately?

Later – H