Petite Poche Charlotte

For my nephew's christening gown, I used Wendy Schoen's Petite Poche Charlotte. Unfortunately, Charlotte is out of print, but she has many other lovely patterns available.

On his special day. I am honored to be his Godmother.

I only made 3 changes to the pattern. Since the sleeves were described as 3/4 length, I added 1.25 inches to the bottom so that they would be full length. I added 6 inches to the bottom of the gown for more length, and I added 5/8" to the center back, so that the edge was turned under a full 7/8" (to the foldline) instead of just 1/4".

Now for the full and detail shots -- lots of them!

Full view. I took this one after I pressed it on Sunday. I used a pima lawn purchased from Handmades.

I stitched the cross while watching Caleb's soccer game on Saturday. :) The featherstitching was done in bits and pieces. The pattern calls for five rows of featherstitching on each side, but I liked only three, plus three is symbolic of the Trinity (also why I chose to do three french knots in the center of the cross).

Back view. I only used 7 (instead of 8) buttons. I have a thing for odd numbers.

The monogram is done in shadowwork. I did most of it on Wednesday night, finishing it up on Thursday during soccer practice, along with the featherstitching. The whole thing took me about 3 hours (yes, it's all handwork). I was a bit nervous when I traced the design -- she had you use a regular #2 pencil! It was perfect, though. btw -- the monogram is for his last name, so this gown will be used for any siblings. :)

This is the bottom band. I ordered this edging from Handmades as well, and it finally arrived on Saturday!!! It was worth the wait, though. It is really really wide, so I trimmed it down to 1.25" above the crosses.

The sleeve bands. I had the beading and edging in stash. :)

The shoulder and underarm seams are french seamed. The rest is entredeux which is stitched on, trimmed to about 1/8", and then zigzagged.

I had hoped to get a slip and a hankie (that can be made into a bonnet) done as well, but didn't have the time. I will get those made later. It was a lot of fun to make this -- I really need to do more heirloom stuff!