Book Review:
Christenings: A Celebration, Creative Ideas for a Special Day contains
crafts and projects that are not only relevant to christenings but
which also fit into other categories such as quilting, gardening,
and floral. This book full of beautiful and interesting projects
but it also has the background and stories of christening traditions
and beliefs during ancient times around the world as well as those
of the Scottish and Irish. It is an interesting read because of
all the stories which might give you an idea of what traditions
you want to uphold for your child's christening with projects and
crafts to make so their day will be extra special.
The first chapter of Christenings: A Celebration covers christening
traditions around the world. It also contains poems, quotations,
biblical passages, anecdotes relating to the subject of children
including the familiar poem Monday's Child and a touching poem called
Choosing a Name which is an issue that is very close to all parents'
hearts. Another important section of this book is Christening Customs
and Traditions (some of the rituals and ceremonies of different
cultures are also described, comparing the Christian baptism and
what it means today to the ceremonies carried out in the ancient
world - Hebrews, Egyptians and Greeks all immersed their infants
in water symbolizing spiritual cleansing).
There is also a section on Christening Robes, which covers what
babies wore for baptisms from the pre-17th century bearing cloth
to Christening robes in 18th century (often passed down in the family)
to which were added bonnets and bootees, (bibs and headbands), mittens,
pincushion covers and handkerchiefs in embroidered linen which were
once again passed down. Occasionally it was a tradition to fashion
a dress of material from the mother's wedding dress or train.
There are a wide variety of projects in Christenings: A Celebration,
everything you can imagine to make for a baby's special day. There
are traditional christening gowns to sew, embroidered pillows, patchwork
quilts (made extra special with pieces of fabric contributed by
friends and family), quilts, and teddy bears. There is also a section
on christening gifts to welcome the baby, traditional gifts of pincushions
(in the 19th century the pins spelled out a message), a brooch on
a baby's shawl (Scotland), coral bead necklace (had magic powers),
or a coal stemmed rattle hung with silver bells (amusing for the
baby and to warn off bad spirits - 18th century).
I really liked that some of the projects such as the Christening
Gown made of fine cotton had step-by-step photos of the instructions
(followed by the same step-by- step photos and instructions to make
matching Christening Bonnet and Brocade Bootees). Other projects
were made easy to create such as the Harlequin Patchwork Teddy because
the pattern was on the same page as the instructions, saving you
time having to navigate the book to find the pattern you need. For
most of the rest of the patterns required there was a templates
section at the back of the book. |
