What I did with my 1987 Wedding Dress Part 2

In 2022, our eldest son got married and I decided to cut up my wedding dress, which had been hauled around the world in a plastic bag for 35 years. You can read all about it here.

As time moves on, last weekend our daughter got married and despite us being in between houses and living out of suitcases whilst we wait for our house purchase to go through, it was time to revisit the box with my wedding dress fabric in. Luckily I had thought to bring it with us and had popped in a piece of damask material for the lining. So as we were staying in Kent, I was able to spend an afternoon at my sister’s house and borrow her sewing machine.

I always loved the fabric with the pretty embroidered sprays of flowers on and it is such an opportunity to re-use it. I thought about what to make for a while, but in the end, decided that I would make the same thing as I did for my son and daughter in law, because actually it is useful to keep cards and souvenirs from the wedding in.

It was necessary to stabilise the wedding dress fabric with some iron on woven interfacing and this made the fabric look bright and ready for a new life. The pouch was then super simple to make, with just two rectangles sewn right sides together and turned right side out and pressed well. It was then easy to just fold it into a pouch and hand sew the edges together to make a neat, vintage looking little bag. The scalloped edges make it super pretty and very bridal.

I embroidered two patches to go on the inside of the bag - our wedding date and my daughter’s wedding day and the place and in doing this, I think it makes for a lovely heirloom item that can be handed down and added to for future generations and maybe added to again.

The spray of flowers came from my headless and my sister steamed them so that they were no longer all squashed and I just attached a few to the pouch.

Also my daughter is a keen amateur artist and I decided that I would order her a lovely sketchbook with a Liberty fabric cover to pop inside as well. These are available on Etsy from here.

When one of your children gets married, it is an emotional milestone in your life and this is a way to link the generations in a tangible way. It is just a simple gift, a way to preserve the past and carry it forward to the future. It is a family thing, a very personal gift and what’s more….she loved it…..