The little boy blessing outfit is one that I made myself when my first baby was born. He was in the hospital for two weeks learning to suck, so during that time while I recovered and didn't have a baby to care for, I spent sewing the little outfit out of beautiful white satin. It was tiny and difficult, and I, being an inexperienced sewer, sought help from my mother-in-law who had come for a visit. We finished it and he was blessed at 6 weeks of age. We used the same outfit for the next two boys when they were born in the next few years. I had it dry cleaned several times and kept it stowed away covered in plastic for the future.
The beautiful little dress my aunt gave my mother when I was born. I was blessed in it. When I moved out on my own after college, my mom gave me a box of things that were mine--a baby book she had kept, a giant stocking in which I was brought home on Christmas Eve, and this little blessing dress. When my daughter was born, after all those boys, I was eager and excited to bless her in the same dress in which I was blessed.
Today when I pulled the outfits out, I was saddened to see they were both starting to yellow. I don't really know how to preserve clothing, apparently, since my blessing dress made it 30 years perfectly preserved and now, after only two years of me having it, it is starting to yellow. The boy outfit had a spit-up spot on it that I apparently did not catch, and I must not have had it cleaned after my 3rd son wore it.
I keep telling myself they are only blessing outfits, I can get new ones if we have more children, and my kids probably don't care much whether they are able to bless their children in the same outfits. But I am so sad at the thought of having to throw them away. Sometimes, things are hard to let go. Even if they are only things.
This is my oldest child in a four-generation picture.(I couldn't find a picture of the 2nd son in the outfit in the digital pictures, so I must have one that was taken with a regular camera before we went digital. I'll look for it later.)
This is my 3rd son wearing the same outfit.
Here is my daughter in the blessing dress. If I can ever find a picture of me wearing the dress on my blessing day, I'll post that too.
5 comments:
There are places that will preserve them. I haven't gotten around to that, mainly 'cuz I keep finding other places to spend our money. I have discovered that putting them in direct sunlight will get rid of the yellowing and the spit-up spots. I hang them in one of our west facing windows so the sun can shine on them for an afternoon and voila!
Ooh, thanks for the tips, I'll have to try that!
OH! That dress you were blessed in is SO BUEAUTIFUL! I love that you blessed her in your dress. I just did the same thing with my baby girl. We used oxyclean to get my old stains out.
The sun is good too, it's a natural bleacher, which i perfect because they are white!
My mother made a blessing suit for Walter out of the satin she used for my wedding dress. I have to dry clean it. I would never wash it myself. So I would try dry cleaning it first.
You want to know the saddest thing though, I can't find the blessing outfits that my children were blessed in. I've looked everywhere but I can't find them. I had them when we moved from our old house, but somehow they went to the Bermuda Triangle. I just hope I find them someday.
Don't throw those outfits away, even if they are yellowed. They are still precious!
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