We have created a Family History Gallery Wall in our hall. It’s a place where we have hung family photos. Not recent photos, in fact our parents as children are the most recent photos. The photos include both our parents, grandparents and my great grandparents and great great grandparents and even a photo of my great great great great grandmother. In addition to all the photos and photo collages, we also have shadow boxes, filled with generations of family mementos, like birth announcements, wedding invitations, graduation invites, my grandmother’s wedding pearls, my great grandfather’s baby shoe and so on. I love the way the seemingly randomly hung frames of all different sizes and the depth and thickness of the shadow boxes look against the flat wall. Although the sizes of the frames are all different, I did choose to use only black frames in the same style, basic with clean box lines. The majority were purchased at Ikea and a few from Hobby Lobby during a frame sale (woo-hoo!)
A few months ago my mom and I where cleaning out her storage building for a garage sale when we found two of the most adorable baby outfits. They were her baby outfits, a little white dress with embroidery and a tan onesie with embroidery. In fact, they were sewn and hand embroidered by my great grandmother (double SCORE.) They were in beautiful condition, especially considering they were 69 years old (sorry mom) and the thread detailing was gorgeous.
I just knew one of them had to be framed for the Family History Gallery Wall. My supplies for this project were: a shadow box frame, straight pins, tape, black scrap booking paper, scissors, screwdriver and of course the baby onesie. (Oops! You will notice in the supply photo, I used the baby dress, but actually ended up framing the onesie.)
Using the screwdriver to remove the back of the frame, I used the frame back to trace a template onto the black scrap booking paper and cut it out. I will pin the onesie to the paper later in the project.
Then, I ironed the onesie on a low heat setting, due to its age. I played around with different folds, until I got just the right look. I did use a light spray of starch, to press the folds down in place. Since it was a onesie, I wanted to be sure to show the button details at the legs. So stinking adorable!
Using the straight pins, I pinned the folds of the arms and middle body of the onesie in the back. In the front, I also pinned down the ironed folds, but did so inside the body so the pins would not be visible.
I then lined the folded and pinned onesie right side up on the black scrapbook paper and centered. I just eyeball things until they look good and stuck straight pins through the onesie (again in concealed areas, so they are not visible) into the paper. Then, once I had several secured pins, I carefully flipped the paper over and taped the pins down. Why? When I tried to stick the pins back through the paper, it crinkled. Yuck! Taping the pins down secured them and it it not effect the look. Ugly for sure on the back, but it will be covered by the back of the frame.
Now all that was left to do was placing it inside the frame and screwing the back on and hanging it.
A beautiful reminder of the precious bundle of joy my grandparents brought home on a cold December day. I am a sentimental sap for sure, but the Family History Gallery Wall is such a wonderful reminder of who we are, where we came from and the amazing legacy that was handed down to us to preserve!
