How to recycle your wedding dress
Add article to favourites
Mrs G, playing Princesses for an afternoon
One of our Facebook fans, Lesley, asked me about wedding dresses. She wanted to know if I’d come across any ways of recycling or upcycling wedding dresses.
What a great question! How many of us buy the dress of our dreams to wear only once – It seems such a waste, doesn’t it?
Please share your ideas in the comments below.
Charity
What better way to spread the love than to donate to Charity? Oxfam has a special section dedicated to wedding dresses that people can browse online. Find your nearest participating Oxfam store on their storefinder page.
Repurpose
Take your beautiful dress to a seamstress and get it made into something you could wear again by having it restyled into a new outfit. Some talented person will be able to make it into a jacket and skirt for example and then dye it so it becomes a ‘special occasions’ outfit you can wear time and time again.
Restyle
It’s unlikely that 25 years after your wedding your own daughter is going to want to wear your perfect dress, but you could get your dress made into an heirloom christening gown or other keepsake. Some people have them made into bedspreads, tablecloths, cushion covers, pillowcases or other household furnishings.
Sell it
Over on “Sell my wedding dress” you can do what it says on the tin and make yourself some money! Over on the dressmarket, things work in a similar way and you can even search through the ‘wanted’ ads to see if someone is looking for what you have to offer.
Make it famous
Offer your dress to a local theatre and allow your dress to become centre stage again!
Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:
Don’t throw it away… That's rubbish, just throw it away ... How many times have you heard that or said…
General In this section MyZeroWaste publishes a series of original articles detailing methods, information and tips for…
Zero waste week Gloucestershire's zero waste week takes place 26th January 2009 until 1st February. The aim is to…- FAQs Here are some of our most common FAQs. Please read through these before sending us a…
How to Make Money From your Unwanted Household Items This week our guest writer is helping you to be green and frugal
Oooh Mrs G I’m famous (not sure if you knew it was me over on FB as I share an account with hubby). Thank you so much for this. I don’t think either of my daughter’s would wear my wedding dress. Heck, it’s the one thing about my wedding that I would change if I could!
@LJayne: Hi Lesley, I didn’t realise that was you LOL! Hope you found something of use in the post!
Wishing I would have thought to make my wedding dress into a baptismal gown for my girls. But still holding out they will wear it or use it somehow at their wedding!
@abbie: Hi Abbie, great to see you – thanks for your comment. Wouldn’t it be lovely if one of your girls chooses to wear your dress – fingers crossed!
Hi there!
Just a little note to want you (and Lesley) to know that my dress is party cut to remake it to a christening gown. Now I have ánd a weddingdress ánd a christening gown for my son (and the next one in my tummy).
Idea?
@Mama’s Simple Life: Hi there, how lovely that you are making a christening gown from your dress; would love to see it when it’s completed 🙂
DONATE IT TO AN ARTIST!
Lots of artists (me being one of them) are now passionate about using salvages materials and upcycling things. Wedding dresses are one of the best sources of fabric, becaue of the sheer amount of it involved in making the bouffant shapes, layers, and trains! Plus, the fabrics are usually really intricate and special.
@Michelle Morgan: lovely idea; thanks!
Lol, I ll bet you were glad to see the back of that particular dress! I know what you mean, what we thought was chic 25 years ago won’t be to our children. As you’ve well described AND shown us. Keep up the good work!!
I once heard of a wedding dress to be cut to a little heaven for above the cradle of the baby. Really liked the idea! I couldn’t, because our child was born before I got married (am going to be…) But best tip would be: buy (or make!) yourself a dress that can be used for several purposes to be worn afterwards!
@Guen: Hello Guen; I agree – a multi purpose dress is a great idea 🙂
Fiquei interessado, porém gostaria de saber se há possibilidade de receber mensagens em portugues?
@Jadilson Corrêa: Olá Jadilson! No momento, não podemos traduzir o site em Português, mas é algo que estamos considerando como um projeto futuro.
Whatever happened with your Grandmother’s junk that you took to an estate sale agent for evaluation???
@Mary Paitsel: Mary, they are still in my garage; I haven’t been able to do the deed just yet 😉 Yes, I admit I’m procrastinating …
Mrs Green says:
October 25, 2010 at 7:53 am
@Mama’s Simple Life: Hi there, how lovely that you are making a christening gown from your dress; would love to see it when it’s completed
Hi there!
A little late, but finally I can show you a (little) picture of our christening gown, a part of my own weddingdress. Last month we used it for our little new born princess. Here’s the link to the picture:
http://mamassimplelife.blogspot.com/2011/05/een-wel-heel-heel-bijzondere-moederdag.html
Hope there are more mamas who will use there dress this way. It is só special to see!
@Monique: Awwww, that’s adorable! I’m so glad you came back to show us – thank you! And I hope the christening was wonderful for you all x