Thanks, ladies, for the suggestions. It never occurred to me to mark the stabilizer! I was planning on using that behind the fabric. Since that was the case I decided on the tear away stabilizer as I just wasn't sure how 'wash away' that type would be and I didn't want anything scratching the baby's skin. But it's very fragile and I'm not sure that it wouldn't just rip to shreds as I traced onto it.
I'll have to look for the 'stick n sticth' product. That sounds very interesting.
The gown has been (hand) washed numerous times. There have been 10 of us christened in this gown over the decades. We're now onto generation #4 using this gown.
I'll dig through my Bohin and Sew Fine chalk colors to see what I have. If none of the existing colors seem proper (too dark?) I'll head over to the LQS to see what they might have on hand. I need to get moving on this as new baby is due early October!