The Hankie Hat

We're getting ready for Lucy's baptism in a couple of weeks and there was one thing for her that I wanted but hadn't been able to find recently. And that is a hankie hat. I had one (given to me by my aunt I think), but it seems to have disappeared. So, my mom agreed to make one for Lucy. Basically, it is a little bonnet made out of a hankerchief that the baby wears for their baptism. Then, when she grows up and gets married, she just pulls the ribbon out and it becomes the hankerchief to carry. Her "something old."

Lucy is wearing a gown that was worn by my grandfather when he was a baby, and my mom had some others of his also. So, she used that material to make the hat. Basically that means this really is a family heirloom, and the fabric is nearly 100 years old, as he was born in 1915.

Here are some pictures of Lucy modeling the bonnet, along with the poem that goes with it.

I'm just a little hankerchief,
Quite square as you can see,
But with a stitch or two they made
A bonnet out of me.

I'll be worn home from the hospital
Or on the christening day;
Then neatly pressed and folded,
I'll be carefully packed away.

On her wedding day a bride must have,
Traditionally, something old--
Good luck, good health and happiness
It brings her, so it's told.

Then what could be more pleasant
Than to unpack little me,
To snip a stitch or two and find
Her hankerchief I'll be.

And if I'm first worn by a boy
He'll surely someday wed;
Then he can give his lovely bride
The hanky once worn on his head.