Wedding Gown to Christening Dress

Have only repaired/restored vintage cotton or linen christening gowns made from bridal gowns of the same material, but one thing comes to mind at once: dry cleaning. IMHO wet cleaning is a far better alternative for dealing with baby spew and other soils likely to be encountered by a christening gown. Of course if the child will only have the dress on for church, then changed into something else, it may not matter. If the bridal gown has been dry cleaned, you may wish to have it air someplace to remove any remaining fumes before you start working with it.

Most of the gowns I've worked on used the lace from the bridal gown as decoration (down the front, along the hem, trimming collar and cuffs), with the material used for the body of the christening gown.

Make sure the gown is quite clean or try and cut around any stains which were not removed. Trains make excellent sources of both material and lace. If the train was lined so much the better as the lining would have hopefully taken much of the abuse.

Candide

Thank you for the hints. I didn't think about the fumes but I'll have to leave that problem up to the mother. Maybe it can be spot cleaned. The dress she has in mine is pretty basic, square yoke, short puff sleeves, and along skirt; a nice canvas for the project.

LizW