This is a review blog post written by Mary Grace’s sister 🙂 

First pub­lished in 4/13/2015

The list of the most impor­tant events of my life has been re-writ­ten. Before I might have men­tioned cer­tain accom­plish­ments or moments of recog­ni­tion for some­thing I alone had achieved. Now, I would say that mar­riage has changed all of this. If I had to write that list today it would read: “Mar­ry­ing Col­in, bring­ing a child into the world, and hav­ing that child, Cather­ine, bap­tized.” My sis­ter, Mary Grace, designed and made the dress I wore on my wed­ding day. She made the coat I wore in the hos­pi­tal while in labor with Cather­ine. So, yes, I want­ed her to make the child’s bap­tismal gown as well.

Orig­i­nal­ly, I had thought that it would be remark­able to use the same lace and silk that was used in my wed­ding skirt. It would be our new fam­i­ly heir­loom tex­tile. The mar­riage that stands at the very begin­ning of our fam­i­ly his­to­ry would be rep­re­sent­ed in every major event to fol­low and con­nect all of us in our dif­fer­ent stages of life. I love that my wed­ding dress was made for me with such pre­ci­sion and devo­tion, and I love know­ing that my lit­tle girl is being treat­ed in the same way on her spe­cial day.

But should she wear the same dress as her moth­er? Ini­tial­ly I thought this would be won­der­ful. But unfor­tu­nate­ly it was sim­ply impos­si­ble to use the silk pan­els that were used in the skirt. They were too small. Mary Grace under­stood that there was a way to make a gown that would reflect every­thing spe­cial, though prac­ti­cal­ly speak­ing would be pos­si­ble and actu­al­ly the most beau­ti­ful option. This new baby is after all, Mary Grace remind­ed me, her own lit­tle per­son even though she fea­tures in our sto­ry as a family!

The gown is made of 100% silk, in its raw form that is no less stun­ning but has a dif­fer­ent feel and seems a bit more durable in its mat­te-like fin­ish. She used lace at the long hem, and again at the top of the gown across the chest and at the capped sleeves. The soft light had a won­drous effect as it passed through the silk lay­ers. The col­or and mate­r­i­al matched my wed­ding dress, and although utter­ly ele­gant was also char­ac­ter­is­tic of the sim­ple dress worn in ear­li­er times that show­cased var­i­ous forms of art, espe­cial­ly embroi­dery, as a sign of its high qual­i­ty and val­ue instead when access to cost­ly mate­ri­als and fab­rics was not possible.

The style of ele­gance and sim­plic­i­ty also matched the place where the bap­tism was giv­en. We were at the Ven­er­a­ble Eng­lish Col­lege in Rome, a place of prayer and study for Eng­lish priests and sem­i­nar­i­ans for almost 700 years. Many young men who have lived in this col­lege returned home to Eng­land to be bru­tal­ly mar­tyred dur­ing the Ref­or­ma­tion, includ­ing one dear to me, Robert South­well. The dual nature of the gown Mary Grace made reflect­ed the breath­tak­ing style of the chapel as much as the style of the saints who died in their unor­na­ment­ed coats. My moth­er hand embroi­dered a cloth with a Ukrain­ian motif that con­nect­ed our his­to­ries to hers, and the red and black col­ors paid homage to the notion that liv­ing a spir­i­tu­al life is a gift, no mat­ter the cost.

Look­ing at the pic­tures, the dress speaks of how impor­tant that day meant to us. She was dressed in a gown made for her, of the finest fab­rics and in way that pro­claimed her place in our fam­i­ly and in the larg­er Chris­t­ian fam­i­ly, and indeed as a new char­ac­ter in the his­to­ry of the entire world. I only wish I had a new Ana­gras­sia dress of my own to wear that day! But being so close to birth, I felt more com­fort­able in a flow­ing, over­sized wool Moroc­can poncho.

Thanks Mary Grace for treat­ing our spe­cial day with all the atten­tion and care it deserved! I am already think­ing of designs for Catherine’s first Com­mu­nion dress!

See the bap­tismal gown my babcha made in these blog posts:

Gigi Bap­tism 1, Gigi Bap­tism 2

“Thanks for the review and photos Katie!” ~Mary Grace