The Travels of the Lowry Baptism Dress

An heirloom baptism dress has been in our family for over 100 years. It was worn by my mother, who was born in 1912, and most recently by my niece’s daughter, born in 2016. It is made of very delicate fabric and has a matching slip.

I do not know where the dress was stored or who used it before 1977, when my mother offered it to my daughter to wear. After that, the dress stayed in my collection.

Before passing the dress on to others in the family, it needed to be cleaned. I did some research on washing vintage fabric and found this washing powder that said it would lift stains and not harm the fabric. It has been useful on all sorts of vintage fabric, from delicate handkerchiefs and linen table cloths. It worked fine for the baptism dress

Once the dress was cleaned up, I offered the dress to any of the girls being born in the family. I guess the boys could have worn it too, but no one showed an interest.

Here are the pictures of the babies born in our family over the years that wore the dress. (Family…if I have missed any, and you have photos to add to my documentation, please let me know.)

You can see the dress has been shipped back and forth across the country for over 30 years! One of the challenges has been to get it shipped in time to be worn when the child is about 3-6 months old. All I asked was for a photo to be taken. The dress did not need to be worn for an actual Baptism ceremony. I wasn’t sure the fabric could handle the motions of a small child.

Now the dress is wrapped in a pillow case and filed away until the next generation needs it. I’ll pass it on…probably to my daughter…to share with her cousins as their children reach the right age. For now, it is safe and documented so far. Like all heirlooms, who knows what adventures it will have!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.