On Sep 28, 2008, at 9:26, Sue wrote:
Before this subject comes to its natural conclusion, is there a natural hanky size for the christening bonnet (the wedding hanky wouldn't matter so much), but to fit a baby head is a more complex thing.
I don't know that there's a "natural" size :) And, the recipient's oldest child is now 12, so it's been a while and I don't remember *precisely*, but...
Mine was 10" square, more-or less (allowance for pattern repeats; be generous and add a repeat rather than take out one. One of the reasons to opt for short repeats) including the lace. The lace was just slightly over 1" wide, so the cloth had to have been around 7-8" square, after hemming.
So, the width of the lace is one consideration; the wider the lace, the smaller the centre needs to be.
Another consideration is when the child is likely to be baptized; at 4 weeks, or 16? Their heads (and everything else <g>) grow fast at that age.
Back in Poland of my childhood (everyone a Roman Catholic), baptism was something that happened very early still (a leftover of the times when infant mortality was high), with not a whole lot of ceremony (participants simply stayed past the Sunday mass). Here (Virginia, and most of my aquaintances are either Episcopalian or Presbyterian, with a few Catholics thrown in for good measure), it seems 3-5 months and a big to-do is the norm.
Don't know how it is where you are but, again, you might want to err on the generous side; I've always thought it'd be easier to make little tucks to take up the "extra", than to change the tying ribbons to allow for the lack of coverage.
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
