Homemaker Monday: A 63-Year-Old Blessing Gown

Welcome to the 88th weekly edition of...

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YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Megan over at Brassy Apple!. The moment I clicked on on her blog and saw the first photo, I knew that I had to feature her. THIS is what I saw...

Is not this the most adorable shirt you've ever seen in your life? And the best part? This was made from a regular square, plain ole t-shirt. You are not going to believe how easy this is to make. For the instructions, click HERE. Now, if only I had her figure, then my life would be perfect. Anyway, thank you, Megan, for this great link, and feel free to grab the "I Was Featured" button from my left side bar!

MINE: This week I'm going to do a little show and tell. At church this past Sunday, we had the newborn blessed. A newborn blessing, in the Mormon religion, is something a new baby is given, usually by his (or her) father, soon after he is born. The father and other important men in the baby's life stand in a circle around him at the pulpit, where each of them place one hand under the baby, which hands usually end up lightly bouncing together as a way of soothing him, and the other hand on the shoulder of the man next to him. The father then gives the blessing. This blessing usually consists of blessings of health, knowledge, having the guidance of The Holy Spirit throughout their lives, finding a suitable wife, etc.

For our newborn's blessing we had the privilege of having his father, the 18-year-old boy, his grandfather, two uncles, and our home teacher in the circle. John was given a microphone which was attached to his lapel, the baby was placed on the hands of the six men, John began to speak, and the newborn began to cry.

As his mother, I could feel my pulse quicken as I listened to his cries, but most everyone who talked to me afterward said how cute it was that he was manifesting his little voice. Okay, if they say so.

That being said, it was a lovely experience, but the best part was dressing him.

We have a tradition in our family where each of us, from the time my mother was blessed, wears a blessing gown made by my mother's paternal grandmother....hand made. Not a stitch on this dress was sewn on a machine, which may be as incomprehensible to you and it was to me when I first saw it. Just look...

It is the following details that I imagine my great-grandmother stitching with love and patience as she sat by her fireplace, thinking of her first grand-daughter laying in the hands of the men in her life during her blessing, wearing this gown...

And as if the gown wasn't impressive enough, my great-grandmother also thought to hand-sew a slip to go under it...

This gown and slip have been worn by my mother, her brother and sister, all of their children, and now all of mine and my sister's children. Yes, the neck-line is starting to show signs of wear, and one of the delicate and tiny button holes in the back is ripped through, but I can't imagine blessing our babies in anything else... oh, expect for the twins, because we couldn't decide one would wear it, so we simply wrapped them in crocheted white blankets their paternal grandmother had made for them. Anyway, it's such a special material possession in my life and I'm grateful to have had another opportunity to utilize it.

Here's more...

(My kids lectured me for having taken the above photo without having first wiped off the spit-up from his chin. They have a point, but honestly, I really didn't notice it as I was frantically trying to get nine kids ready for church and get us there in time for me to start the prelude organ music while, at the same time, trying to blog. Not the best combination. I'll do better next time.)

Thanks for listening. :)

OURS:

I'm so loving reading all of your awesome homemaking tips and thank you very much!