What I Made This Week: A Wedding Dress Hem, 37 Nurse Keepsakes and 93 Bears
She sent me the hem of her wedding dress. Just the hem.
A few thin strips of fabric, nothing else. Not nearly wide enough to cut a single letter out of. I sat and looked at it for a while, because there was no version of this where I just laid a pattern down and cut.
So I sewed the strips back together. One at a time, edge to edge, until I had a piece big enough to work with. Every letter of her new last name came off the very outside edge of her dress - the part nobody ever sees again once the alterations are done.
That is the job most weeks. Somebody mails me something small and I figure out how to turn it into something they can wear. I put that one up on Instagram if you want to see the strips before and after: watch the reel here.
Here is the rest of it. This week was 143 orders, 222 pieces, 56 different designs.
37 nurse keepsakes, and most of them were jackets
This was the biggest week I have had for nurse work in a while. Thirteen different nurse designs went through the studio, and 37 pieces in total.
The jackets are what took over. Quarter zips, full zips and zip hoodies, in charcoal, jet black, navy, athletic heather and dark heather grey, each one with the applique cut from a hospital swaddle blanket. Baby feet fabric, teal stripes, aqua and pink, blue and salmon stripes. Some nurses mail me the blanket from their own unit. Some pick from what I keep on hand - blue stripes, teal stripes, the feet print and the dino print.
The departments this week read like a hospital directory. Labor and delivery, NICU, mother baby, maternal fetal medicine, OB tech, surgical tech, respiratory therapy, CRNA. One asked for ECMO stitched as the applique with little hearts underneath, which I had never done before and now want to do again.
If you want one, the quarter zip and full zip jacket is the one everybody is ordering right now, and the curved L and D crewneck is the classic. The rest live in nurse keepsakes.
93 pieces of Bears spirit wear
The Delran Bears fall fundraiser is still running and it is still the biggest single pile on my table. 93 pieces this week across three schools - Delran Intermediate, Delran Middle and Millbridge Elementary - in ten different designs.
The applique script crewneck led with 23. Then 20 vintage stripe tees, almost all of them in heather brown. 13 varsity pennant banner tees, and 13 brown gingham pennant crewnecks, still the prettiest thing in the collection. After that it was sunglasses bear tees, teacher fleece jackets in black and dark grey, embroidered full zip hoodies, wheat trucker hats and a couple of performance tees.
Youth sizes are running right alongside adult sizes now, so the kids are wearing them too. If your school wants something like this, everything I have built so far is in school spirit.
36 wedding dress keepsakes
The hem was not the only dress that came through. 36 wedding pieces went out this week.
18 were BRIDE sweatshirts, each one cut from that bride's own gown and finished with her new last name. Six were bouquet appliques. Five were MRS sweatshirts in sage chinoiserie, rose paisley and floral. Two were monogram and year keepsakes cut from remnants. There was a mother of the groom shirt, an ivory lace MRS, and one set of scrunchies from gown fabric.
The wedding dates ranged from 2021 to 2027. That still gets me. Some of these are brides getting ready for next summer, and some are women who put the dress in a box five years ago and finally decided to do something with it. Both are right. All of it is in wedding and bride.
23 keepsakes from baby clothes
Ten MAMA sweatshirts made from baby clothes, plus a PAPA, a MOMMA, a NANNY and a Grammy. Several had the kids names running down one sleeve. One asked me to add a heart cut from a striped onesie next to the names, and it worked better than I expected.
Five were keepsake caps, which have been steady ever since I started making them. There was a matching MOM and DAD pair cut from the same hospital blanket, a first Christmas keepsake sack, and a baby clothes quilt backed in minky. Those quilts take the longest of anything I make and are still my favorite.
Everything made from clothes you already own sits in memory keepsakes.
Fall finally showed up
Only five pieces, but they were the right five. Two pumpkin season plaid sweatshirts, two orange sequin bat crewnecks and one SPOOKY sequin sweatshirt in pepper. Seasonal stuff is in holiday and seasonal.
And the odds and ends
Three maroon lacrosse number shirts with the team name on the sleeve, one more number shirt with the initials tucked inside the digits, a senior mom photo tee, and eight rush upgrades for people with a date coming up fast.
I also made a memory animal from a loved one's clothing this week. I do not say much about those ones. They matter.
How to order
Start with the listing that matches what you want made - all of it is in embroidered shirts and sweatshirts. If you are sending me your own fabric, whether that is a wedding dress, a hospital blanket or a box of baby clothes, order first, then message me and I will walk you through getting it to me. If you do not have fabric of your own for a nurse piece, I keep blanket prints in stock and you can pick one.
And if you want to watch things get made, I post most of it as I go over on Instagram.