Christening Gown for Baby R

It was a real joy for me to create this mini-me version of my own wedding dress for my baby daughter. I used the same green and gold silk, and the gold lace and recreated the fuchsia embroidery. I adjusted the style to suit her age but kept the main design features of the contrast waterfall, switched to the front so it would show on a baby in arms.

Official Pictures by Sebastian Lomas

The dress has a simple bodice with round neckline and gold lace overlay. Long sleeves have a little puff at the top and a gold silk extension, the Christening was on Advent Sunday in December! The waterfall cascades in alternate green and gold either side of the underskirt with hand embroidered fuchsias in Japanese silk thread. The back fastens with buttons and loops, just like my real dress did!

I had also made a mini-me version of my husbands wedding waistcoat for my son’s Christening a few years before, and luckily he still just about fitted in it for this occasion!

Mini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity Westmacott

Mini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity Westmacott

Embroidered wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: views of the back with peplum and contrast waterfall

Here are some picture of my wedding dress, you can click here to see the portfolio entry.

Embroidered wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: on my way to the church with my daddy and cutting the cake

Mini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity WestmacottMini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity Westmacott: hand embroidery detail

Details of the embroidery and button back.

Mini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity Westmacott: button and loop back detailMini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity Westmacott

I made the dress quite big on purpose as I hoped we would get a chance for her to wear it again! She was eight weeks old when she first wore it for her own Christening, and here she is again at 19 months. It was the perfect length and just about squeezed on around her middle and arms! Luckily she has always been on the small side, but it was lovely to pop her in the dress again for her cousin’s Christening ceremony.

Mini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity WestmacottMini-me Christening gown in green silk and gold lace by Felicity WestmacottPale blue and green silk mini-me christening dresses by Felicity Westmacott

Here are me and my sister with our daughter’s, both wearing mini-me versions of our wedding dresses. You can click here to see more pictures of Baby A’s dress and here for Eleanor’s wedding dress.

Pale blue and green silk mini-me christening dresses by Felicity Westmacott

Felicity Westmacott

I write about all aspects of weddings, dressmaking, fashion history, and the human relation to clothing. I welcome comments and debate.

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It's giving bridal Sun Goddess 🌞 Just look at that colour!

One of my favourite bespoke wedding dresses to date. I made this opulent bronze gold look for an equally gorgeous bride who wanted something a little different for her wedding day. 

My favourite features have got to be the statement bow on the shoulder and the cartridge pleats around the waist. This style of pleating helped add volume to this unbelievable iridescent dupion silk. Cartridge pleating was popular in the first Elizabethan era and always gives a touch of the historical to any garment on which it's included.

I also included a bustle hook (you can see what the dress looks like up in the last clip), which totally transforms the dress and makes it much easier to move in when it's time to dance!

This is bride was a dream client - elegant and adventurous, with a touch of the dramatic 😉 drop me a DM if you've got wedding dress dreams that you're dying to bring to life!

#weddingdress #ukbride #bespokeweddingdress #bridetobe
I thought it would be fun to see the differences between various bridal petticoats and hoop skirts. Meet the Aurora wedding dress, she's one of my favourites, especially because of the excellent dramatic vibes she gives. So she felt like the perfect dress to experiment with.

The Aurora dress already has some layers of netting built into the dress, so she's already got a bit of volume from the get go. But I wanted to see what difference adding more underlayers would have.

The first addition was a single hoop skirt. Hoop skirts come in all sorts of variations - the single hoop is pretty much what it sounds like. There's a single hoop at the bottom of the skirt, translating into more width at the bottom of the dress.

Then I took off the hoop skirt, and put on a 5-layer petticoat. This thing is a monster! But adds so much more airy, fluffy volume.

The second hoop skirt I tried was a bell hoop skirt. This one has hoops built in all the way up the skirt, creating more of a...you guessed it...bell shape.

And then finally, for the ultimate princess vibes, I tried both the 5-layer petticoat and the bell hoop skirt together. It's giving fairy tale bride, for sure. Perfect for twirling in whilst you dance with your prince, princess or princep.

When ordering a dress from me, talking about what kind of silhouette you want is really useful. And I've got loads of seamstress secrets to achieve pretty much anything you can imagine!

#weddingdress #dipdyeweddingdress #seamstress #pinkweddingdress #princessweddingdress #balloonsleeves
"I cannot begin to put into words how thankful I am that I found you to make my wedding dress of my dreams. The dress was perfect in every way and the colours looked glorious in the Cornish sunshine. Everyone fell in love with the dress and I even got likened to the Porthleven mermaid! It even stood up to rambling down cliffs. You truly are a genius and I can never thank you enough."⁠

Nicola wanted an elegant and figure-hugging mermaid wedding dress made in pale ivory lace. To add colour to her look, she chose a vibrant yellow, orange, red and purple dip dye skirt. 

If you want to see how the dress looked on the day of Nicola's wedding, have a look at my previous post. I love how the colours of the dress really stand out against the dramatic setting of the Cornish coast.⁠
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If you're also looking for a completely unique wedding dress, then you've come to the right place. Starting with your ideas and working together during the entire process, I'll design and make your dream wedding dress. Drop me and DM and let's have a chat!
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Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
Part 2!

In Part 1 I spent all day prepping my bridal window display. There was a looot of dismantling and tidying involved before I could even begin to start thinking about which wedding dresses I wanted to include in my Pride themed window. Now that's all done, let's just enjoy all this glorious colour!

Which outfit is your favourite? I would love to see a bride wearing both the skirt and veil in one, fabulous, rainbow look.

And, of course, happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

#pride #bridalboutique #surreybride #sussexbride #altbride #alternativebride #colourfulbride #bespokeweddingdress #weddingdress
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in
from design to completionbespoke wedding dressesFelicity Westmacott
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in