The great sacrament is unthinkable without the necessary paraphernalia: a cross, a candle and a baptismal set (shirt and kryzhma). Each of these relics has its own symbolic and spiritual meaning.
What are baptismal clothes?
This is a ceremonial outfit that a baby wears during the sacrament of baptism. It doesn't matter whether it's a boy or a girl.
Dressing in white clothing signifies the cleansing of the person being baptized from sins and the obligation to lead a pure life. The white palette symbolizes the manifestation of joy from turning to Christ.
The mandatory clothing requirements for baptism are the same. She must:
- to be new, that is, to mark the beginning of a bright life in purity and spirituality
- be comfortable, easy to take off and put on, which is dictated by the peculiarities of the sacrament
- consist of two mandatory elements: a kryzhma and a shirt.
To these requirements we only need to add one more, dictated by the care of the child - baptismal clothing must be made of natural fabrics (softened linen, cotton, cambric), breathable and moisture-absorbing (in order to prevent allergies and other troubles).
All other signs of clothing for baptism are conditional, optional and invented by the laity:
- Dressing up: of course, christening is a great holiday for all relatives, and therefore clothes are chosen with lace, ribbons, rhinestones and other decorations.
- Completeness: for the sacrament you need a wardrobe of 5-7 things: cap, overalls, suit, dress, pantaloons, hats, etc.
- Content: all or individual parts of clothing must contain the symbols of the cross, the date of the ceremony and others.
What else do you need for a christening?
The basic set for baptism consists of a pectoral cross, a shirt or baptismal shirt, sometimes a kryzhma, a white cotton cap with lace, is used. You definitely need to buy an icon for the child and a candle.
Note! It is also necessary to have two towels, one for the child, the second for Father (after the procedure, the towel remains with him).
You can sew a baptismal set for a girl with your own hands using a pattern from the Internet or various handicraft sites. Products can be wrapped or with ties.
Cap for a child from one year old
Thus, sewing a baptismal shirt is not very difficult. The main thing is to take the child’s measurements correctly and create a pattern. The process itself takes no more than an hour. You can decorate the products as you wish, but most often white lace or bias tape is used.
Why you can’t sew or buy clothes for baptism in advance
This sign is by no means associated with any negative consequences or troubles for the person being baptized. A situation may simply arise that a size 20 shirt purchased with love will turn out to be too small for a grown-up hero. After all, last week he barely fit into size 24 overalls. Or vice versa. The hope that my goddaughter will reach 7 kg in a month is becoming more and more elusive every day. And at the time of the sacrament, the child will literally drown in an outfit that is 2-3 sizes larger.
Kryzhma: what is it for and how to sew it with your own hands
Kryzhma is a square white diaper (can be insulated). When performing the sacrament, the baby is wrapped in it after the font. The responsibility for making or purchasing kryzhma lies with the godmother.
Needless to say, a symbolic diaper should be made from natural fabric and larger than the child’s size? But everything else - decorating the edge with lace, embroidering the date of the sacrament and the name of the baptized on the corner - is a matter of desire and taste. These points do not in any way affect the correctness of the christening.
After getting wet in the font, the kryzhma does not need to be washed. The water in the bowl generally has healing properties. Children do not catch a cold after immersing themselves in the font, even in the winter months.
After the sacrament, the kryzhma remains in the house where the baby lives. This relic is endowed with miraculous powers - to cure a child from diseases and the evil eye.
Kryzhma, made with one’s own hand, is a wonderful sincere gift to the godson from the godmother.
To sew a relic, you need to prepare:
- 2 pieces of white fabric (1x1 m)
- 1 piece of padding polyester (1x1 m)
- stitching with lace embroidery (4m)
- needle and thread for basting
- sewing machine
Manufacturing
- First, baste around the perimeter of the first cut of fabric, and then sew a seam. To prevent the lace corners from curling up and distorting the fabric, they are folded like an accordion.
- At the next stage, both pieces of fabric are sewn together, leaving space for inserting padding polyester.
- The filling is inserted into the resulting cover, the corners are straightened and the lid is sewn up to the end.
- Finally, all that remains is to stitch along the corners and sides of the finished item to securely secure the padding polyester inside.
- If desired, the corners of the kryzhma are decorated with beads, embroidery, ribbon bows and other decorative elements.
Master class: baptismal swaddling cloth with embroidered hood
I made this kryzhma (baptismal diaper) for my niece.
I made it myself, although I could have bought it. But you know that making something beautiful and necessary for your family is much more pleasant than buying it.
I took photographs during the process.
I took photographs to make a master class for you, so that you could see that it is not at all difficult to make kryzhma.
So, to create a baptismal diaper we will need:
— 100% white linen. I bought 2.5 m (with a width of 150 cm), used half. You can use other fabrics: cotton, for example, or terry (if the christening is planned for the cold season). The main rule here is that the fabric must be white . I chose linen because I really respect this material: it is warm and not hot at the same time, it absorbs water well;
- lace for decoration. I used a little more than 2.5 m. The length, I think, may change depending on the size of the kryzhma itself;
- pattern for embroidery. I found the diagram on one of the sites on the Internet;
- metallized DMC floss. The design required two colors, I first selected three, and ended up embroidering with four. You can embroider with floss from another company, or you can use regular cotton threads;
— special water-soluble DMC canvas . Once again I praised my thriftiness, thanks to which this miracle lay in my bins. Without it, it would be very difficult to embroider even crosses, taking into account the fact that the design did not lie along the flax fibers, but diagonally;
- satin ribbon . In our case, it’s pink, because I made the kryzhma for a girl. It is possible without a ribbon, but with it the finished work looks more elegant;
- of course, it is impossible to embroider and sew anything without needles and a sewing machine.
So let's get started.
First, let's cut out the fabric . Everything is very simple here. You need to cut out one large square (the width of the sides is from 1 m. In my case - 120 cm) and two small isosceles triangles for the future hood (the leg of the triangle is about 30 cm). You can sew a kryzhma without a hood, but for a girl it will be better with it.
By the way, I was worried that the hood would be small and I have no experience with babies. But in fact it turned out that he was a little too big. So the triangles can be cut out a little smaller.
On one of the triangles we mark the place for future embroidery, placing it in the center.
We cut the water-soluble canvas of such a size that our entire embroidered design fits on it.
We baste it to the fabric and put on the hoop.
These are our threads. As I already said, at first I thought of using three colors, but then I took one more, brighter one, for the central flower. Generally speaking, I don’t like embroidering with metallic threads - they become shaggy and tear. A special wax could help, but I don’t have it right now.
We embroider, the end result is:
Wash off the water-soluble canvas. To do this, you just need to immerse our embroidered fabric in warm water, wait a little, and then thoroughly rinse off the remains of the canvas.
Now we need to sew a hood.
To do this, we fold our triangles facing each other (the embroidery should be inside.
We lay lace along the long side of the triangles. We baste, we sew.
Unfold the fabric, fold it, iron it.
The hood is ready:
We sew the hood to one of the corners of the square, applying it with embroidery to the fabric.
I sewed it with a zigzag stitch to simultaneously protect the edges of the fabric from fraying.
Turn it inside out and iron it again.
Sew on the lace.
Of course, lace can be sewn along the edges of the diaper. But I decided to sew it like this:
We process the edges of the kryzhma.
To do this, turn the edge of the fabric 1.5 cm to the wrong side, baste it (you don’t have to baste it if you sew confidently) and sew it with a zigzag seam. We cut off all unnecessary threads.
Now you need to carefully iron it and fold it beautifully.
Our baptismal wrap is ready!
And do not forget that the baptismal swaddling cloth should be stored and treated with care.
DIY white shirt for baptism
Immediately after the ceremony, the child is dressed in a white shirt, indicating that the person being baptized begins a new life in Christ and is transformed by the Divine Light.
The traditional spacious shirt has a simple cut with a minimum number of fasteners and ties, does not restrict movement and does not cause inconvenience to the baby. The godmother can sew such clothes herself. It is better for beginning needlewomen to choose two types of cut shirts:
- elongated with straight sides
- elongated with slanting sides.
The shirt, as a sacred relic, is also endowed with healing properties. If the child is sick, mothers put a shirt on him, place him on top of the body (if he is already small) or leave him under the patient’s pillow.
The shirt cannot be transferred to other hands. She does not have healing powers towards other children.
It is difficult to explain in words the process of making a shirt. It would probably be better to watch this master class once than to listen and memorize the algorithm of actions ten times.
Christening outfit for a girl
Many mothers wonder whether it is necessary to buy a baptismal dress, cap (hat), booties and other wardrobe items for their daughter?
Attention! The correct answer is yes, but not necessary. More precisely, everything comes from the personal preferences of the parents. The Church is loyal to any type of clothing. In other words, the outfit for boys and girls is not fundamentally different.
To perform the sacrament, it is enough to bring with you a cross (buy on the spot), a shirt and a kryzhma. If parents want to see their daughter in a dress and cap, please, the priest will not be against it.
This is interesting! In the West, Catholics do not immerse the baby in the cup when performing the ceremony. Hence the sophisticated models of baptismal dresses, sundresses and hats.
Among the Slavs, the sacrament is performed differently, so those being baptized need shirts that are easy and quick to put on, and everything else is surplus.
We sew kryzhma ourselves
To sew a terry baptism towel, you will need:
- required fabric;
- meter;
- ruler;
- pencil;
- sewing machine.
Now the main thing is to decide on the size. If the baby is a newborn, a border of 75 x 75 cm will be enough, for adult children - 100 x 100 cm.
We cut out a square based on the above parameters. Don't forget to allow seam allowance on each side. One centimeter will be enough.
If you decide to make a baptismal towel with a corner, you need to make a rounding on one side. A regular disk will do. Attach it to the kryzhma and circle it. Cut along the contour, baste the pre-made corner. To prevent the seams from being visible, sew ribbons around the perimeter.
When making baptismal towels for boys, it is better to use blue corners. Such a kryzhma will stand out and look beautiful in photographs.
Do you need a baptismal cap?
This question is often asked by mothers of not only girls, but also boys. No. A baptismal cap is not a mandatory attribute of the sacrament.
When entering a church, only married women cover their heads as a sign of submission and respect for the Lord and husband. For a little girl there is no need to wear a cap, except against cold and drafts.
Moreover, we remember the ritual of cutting hair as part of the sacrament of baptism. In this case, the cap will completely interfere.
Children's sets for boys and girls
Children's baptismal sets hardly differ by gender. As a rule, the fabric in both cases is white, which is not accidental. White symbolizes purity, and it is quite logical that the newly baptized are dressed in this color.
Gender differences can be seen in decor. For example, items for a boy are often decorated with blue lace or braid, and items for a girl are often decorated with pink. However, clothes are often decorated with neutral details: gold or silver.
