I’m so excited to share this first Christmas rustic wall art I made! It’s my favorite decoration this year!
I’ve held onto my daughter’s 1st Christmas dress for 13 years now. Which pains me…like physically makes my chest hurt…to think that the sweet little girl who once wore this dress is now a teenager!
I honestly don’t understand how we got to this point. How does time just keep on plugging away?!
For 13 years, I’ve kept this dress folded away in her memory box. Every so often when I added something new to the box, I would see it there and get a small smile on my face. But I rarely pulled it out and never displayed it.
She actually had 2 Christmas dresses that year that were super similar! I had bought her this one and about a week later, my Mother-in-Law came to visit and gave her another dress. I’ve saved both, but decided to display this one since I loved the little velvet bows.
Of course, now the only picture I can find is her wearing the other one! Ha! But they were both worn at the same age, so you can get the idea anyways!
What I wouldn’t give to pick that little girl up again and snuggle her head into my neck!
She was born in early November, so luckily for this project, her 1st Christmas dress is pretty tiny!
Just look at that smocking! I’d never get away with putting her in something like this now! To me, it’s such the benchmark, though, of a sweet baby girl dress.
This was so simple to make too. I just used scrap pieces of wood that I found in our garage. There was literally no cost involved at all for me!
Supplies:
1/4″ plywood
1″x2″x8′ piece of common board for trim
Scrap wood for the back of the plywood
Directions:
I cut my 1/4″ plywood into a 19″ square according to the size of my dress. You should measure your dress first before you start cutting. Then I painted the front white.
I had old baseboards from our renovation, so I cut 2 pieces for the top and bottom of the back of my board. This gives me something to nail the frame into.
Here’s a picture of what I mean from another project I made. Just cut your baseboards (or random piece of wood) to length and then nail right into your 1/4″ plywood. If you’re using baseboards, just make sure you flip the bottom one so the widest edge is at the edge of your board and gives your nail a place to anchor to.
Then I cut my common board to size for the frame and stained it. Once it was dry, just attach around your board using your nail gun.
I attached the dress using pushpins, so it doesn’t harm the dress and I can easily pull it out and store it in tissue paper during the rest of the year.
It really is the simplest of projects and brings me such a smile every time I walk by it! I paired it with the vintage ceramic tree I picked up this season.
Have you held onto some of your kids’ baby clothes? Any other creative ways to display them?
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