family baptismal gown

My Grandma Jeanne made this beautiful gown for my brother's baptism in 1975.

Since then, 11 babies in the family have worn it.  This Sunday, Henry will be #12!  Every child's name and date of birth is embroidered along the bottom.  So this week it was my job to a) make sure the gown actually fit my Chunky Monkey before trying to stuff him into it during Mass and b) stitch his name and info onto the gown.

(there's me!)

(front)

 (back)

 

(Henry's the first one on row 4!  Please excuse this terrible photo.  Shooting white-on-white is tricky, and a pro photographer I am not.)

Let me tell you that it was no easy task to dress my chubby baby in this extra-delicate family heirloom, making sure not to rip, tear or smudge the fabric and trying to keep him from shoving handfuls of the garment into his mouth every five seconds.  But, luckily, it fit.  I do have a few more things to say on the subject:

1. The tear on the left sleeve was already there (not my fault)
2. Elastic is an invention that should be celebrated by mothers everywhere.

So yes, sadly there were a few rips and seams unraveling.  My conscience wouldn't let me just leave them, so I did some fix-ups oh-so-carefully because

3. Few things are more terrifying than partially dismantling an extra-delicate family heirloom with the intention to "fix" it.  *furrows brow and says 10 Hail Marys*

Luckily again, everything went as planned.  I fixed the rip on one arm-hole and even added tiny elastic pieces should there be some future babies with body-builder biceps.  The top snap also need reinforcing along with the binding near the neck.  If I kept looking I probably would have found more ways to give it love, but I had to draw the line, because nap-time was about over.

So the garment is ready--all that remains on this list is: keep baby from expelling any bodily fluids on it.  I'll let you know how that one goes.

vintage eye candy

 I scored some new old buttons at my sisters' Fritzi's sale a few weeks ago.  I need more buttons like I need a hole in my head, but that is a different story entirely.

Speaking of vintage lovelies, they still have lots of great items for sale - look here!

Email fritzis-seattle@hotmail.com if interested in any of these!

thrifting adventures

My sissies and I have been on many thrifting adventures lately! Many of our found objects will be available at our next Fritzi's sale (date TBD)...however these pieces will be living at my house:wooden planter

Little blue stepladder

wee wagon
(some lady about ripped this from my hands. that's how you know it's good.)

Head over to the Fritzi's blog to see more of our finds!

Fritzi's!

Announcing...

Fritzi's!

I'm so excited to be a part of this venture with my sisters & cousins! I will be contributing my bags & jewelry cases. I've got some new designs & fun found fabrics to showcase. Sneak peeks to come!

Read more about the collective and see available items on our blog and on flickr.

Hope to see you on the 25th or 26th!

Look What I Found

OK, back to last weekend for a moment. The sisters and I had an adventure in Spokane (I know--glamorous!!) with our aunties (also known as The Sisters - go figure!) Agenda:

1. Baby Shower:

Highlights: Tring to out-do each other with cute handmade items for Pearl (me-handmade blanket, Sis #1: hand-appliqued onesie, Sis #2: handmade burp cloths, onesies, Sis #3: hand-knit baby booties and mittens... are you jealous of my family yet?

2. Value Village:

Highlights: Trying to find sweet tooled leather belts with names engraved. Previous finds inlude "Norm" "Evan" and "Ethel." VV didn't have exactly what we were looking for, but leave it to the Aunties...they had just what I needed in their stash...

I am Molly Jeanne, you know.

3. Classy Racks. Not only is it what we have, it's where we went.

Highlights: One Very Fabulous red-and-green plaid polyester leisure suit, to be worn by Sis #1 at annual dress-up Christmas party. We all just about had a cat-fight over it.

4. Sunday Morning Estate Sale.

This was proclaimed by the Aunties to be one of The Best Estate Sales of All Time. If you knew them like I do, you'd know that that kind of statement coming from them carries a LOT of weight. We all found tons of treasures (they had to go back later because everything wouldn't fit in the car with all of us) but here are my finds:

Do you love?? Simply must hang out with Aunties more often!

A Button Story

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved buttons. She liked to talk to her co-workers about how much she loved collecting buttons, especially those of the vintage variety. One day a spectacular present was delivered to her! Sweet, huh?! Apparently our school secretary found this at some antique shop and got it for me. Awesome! If you think it looks nice and old, you're right, and it smelled nice and old too. :) So I took them home and washed them up...check out my new treasures!

These are my favorites:

There was even one just for Jamie!

And I can't end the post without a shot of my existing button collection. Sometimes I like to just open up the box and look at them. It doesn't take much to entertain some people!