One dress, two big days with more to come

Wege said it was kind of scary to cut up the bridal gown but was proud of how it ultimately turned out.

COLERIDGE — Claudet Wege of Coleridge doesn’t consider herself a dressmaker or really a seamstress at all but she did have the opportunity to sew the same wedding dress twice.

“I do enough sewing to get by - just out of need,” she said.

When Wege’s daughter, Wendi Schutte of Laurel, got married in January 1994, the hired seamstress working on her bridal gown got ill and Wege stepped in to help finish it in time for the nuptials. Wege also enlisted the help of her own mother (Schutte’s grandmother), the late Phyllis Dirks, to finish stitching up the gown. It was Wendi who had

It was Wendi who had the idea to repurpose that same dress 28 years later and Wege set to work again.

“I have five girls altogether and none of them would be able to wear it (the wedding dress),” Wendi said. “So to carry on the tradition of it I decided to make a baptismal gown out of it.” Wege said it was kind of

Not only did Wege make the baptismal gown but also five garters (one for each of Wendi’s daughters) and a ring bearer pillow.

Noah Schweers, Wendi’s first grandchild - son of Demi Schutte and Samuel Schweers - wore the wedding dress turned baptismal gown when he was baptized at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Wisner Jan. 2.

Wege used a baptismal gown pattern for the project that took a week or two to complete. “She worked on it pret

“She worked on it pretty steadfast,” Wendi said. “She always puts her own special touch on things and doesn’t follow it (the pattern) to a T,” Schutte said.

One modification that Wege made was to make an opening in the back of the baptismal gown that can be tightened or loosened to fit.

The hope is that Noah is the first of many in the heirloom.

“We hope to have all our grandbabies baptized in this gown,” Wendi said.