Craft Uses for Old Wedding Dresses?

Most wedding dresses are worn only once and then stored. Here are some craft ideas for recycling an old wedding dress.

Some Ideas

You could try making evening purses, beaded tops, use as appliques on other tops or skirts, window valances, evening skirts, or prom dresses (by combining part of the wedding dress with a satin type skirt/beaded bodice or satin bodice/beaded skirt).

By Jean

Christening Dress

Make a christening dress for your baby.

By Willem

Wall Décor

How about attaching some of the lace or beadwork to a scrap of velvet in a darker color and then framing the piece in a nice frame to hang on the wall. I have seen this done with lace doilies, brass buttons, medals, etc. It looks very nice.

By c. nelson

Drama Department or Prom Dresses

Dye them and give them to the drama department of the local school. Really bright colors that show up on stage! Red, yellow, orange and purple.

Make a new wedding dress or prom dress out of the ones that are outdated. There are yards of satin, lace and the under-skirting that would make some girl, that otherwise couldn't afford a new dress, something spectacular. Ask the school counselor if there is someone that wouldn't be offended by charity and go for it.

By Carla Bledsoe

My Ideas

One idea is to make angel dolls or angel bears. You could make a small dress pattern and attach feathered wings purchased from a craft store.

Also, there are charity sites that make over wedding dresses into burial buntings for babies. It is such a tragedy for a family when a baby passes; and, of course, they would like to have them dressed in something beautiful. There aren't too many places out there that grieving parents can go shopping to pick up such an item. I think it is a wonderful use for an item that is enmeshed in the symbolism of two people beginning a life together. That dress can then become an item that becomes important to a family as they grieve the earthly loss of their child and celebrate a heavenly journey at the same time.

This is just an idea to think about.

By Peg S.

Communion Dress

My grandma made a communion dress out of an old wedding gown and all her granddaughters wore it for communion! It was very special to all of us (5 sisters) that we got to all wear it. The veil too was handmade. She made the sack that the cards are put in for weddings. She also made a beautiful table cloth with some of the lace (she dyed it with tea) and then overlaid it on a beautiful cream cotton satin fabric.

There are so many things. Halloween outfits, head pieces etc. Have fun!

By Laura

Fancy Hankies

What about fancy hankies for brides as "something old".

Crazy Quilt

Why not make an all-white crazy quilt out of them? You could give the finished quilt as a wedding present. Or dye the fabric different colors before you piece the quilt and keep it for yourself!

By Threegetts

Use as Fabric

I have a small story. It was getting around the time for my daughter to be baptized. I asked my mother if she could give me the gown my grandmother had bought for my baptism. She told me that I could borrow it but not keep it. Well, I wanted to have it to pass it down so that my daughter's child could use it as well, and continue passing it down. In turn, I decided to have her gown made out of my wedding dress and her First Communion dress as well. I even had enough that a new Cabbage Patch doll has a dress exactly like my wedding dress, but smaller for her doll collection.

By LRP

Dress Up

I used one along with old prom dresses to make 'dress-up' clothes for my niece. All her friends wanted to wear them when they played. A few of the gowns/dresses looked nice enough to actually be worn by a flower girl in a wedding. I also made several ring-bearer pillows from dresses, along with a lacy quilt made for a daughter's christening from her mother's wedding gown.

By susan

Decor

I have one I put on an old dress form.

By Mary

Fancy Gift Box

How about using the material for wrapping a wedding gift? The beadwork and lace would make a perfect package.

Also, here's another idea. I just finished making a "My Secret Stuff" box for my granddaughter. It was just a paper mache box covered with material in her favorite colors, lined inside with a contrasting color. I folded the material for the sides and top so as to have a "pleated" look. I attached artificial flowers on the top. I wrote her name in puffy pen on a round circle of contrasting color and glued it to the bottom to cover all the pleats.

She just turned 8 years old and she absolutely loved the gift. Inside I place dozens of pieces of candy. Each one was wrapped with paper I printed on my computer with her photo on it and a birthday wish for her. She had lots of sweets to give out to all the little girls who came to her party.

Now after reading the other posts, I would have liked to cover it with material from her mother's wedding dress or my old one. What a treasure to pass down to the next generation. If you made this as a wedding present, you could put family photos of the couple when they were small inside the box. What a fun, memorable gift, made with your own hands!

By Linda