Someone sent me her gown this week and did not want a sweatshirt.
She wanted her initial, and she wanted to be able to see it. So I cut the letter out of three different fabrics off that same gown — the satin, the lace, the patterned chiffon — and pieced them into one letter, then stitched it onto an 8x10 canvas. It slides straight into a standard 8x10 frame, so it hangs on the wall instead of sitting in a box in the closet.
I put it on Instagram on Wednesday. And it does not have to be a wedding dress — a christening gown, a grandmother's slip, a baby blanket, anything with three or four fabrics in it will give you a letter with layers.
Wedding dresses
The gown work this week was small in number and strange in the best way. Four BRIDE keepsake sweatshirts, plus one more memory keepsake shirt.
One of them is not a name at all. Instead of her new last name, this bride asked for a line from a song she loves, appliquéd across the front, with the thread matched so close to the sweatshirt colour that you have to stand next to her to read it. I love it and I am a little nervous about it, which is usually the sign it will be good.
The rest were names — one with a 2026 date underneath, one with a 2025, and one bride who asked for no date at all. That happens more than you would think.
If you are thinking about this for your own dress, I need roughly a 7 by 15 inch piece of fabric to cut letters from, and it does not have to be a tidy piece. The rest of the gown work is in Wedding & Bride.
A box of Christmas jammies
Earlier this year a grandmother sent me her granddaughter's baby clothes and I made them into a keepsake stocking. This week she sent a second box — the tiny Christmas outfits. Striped jammies, a ruffled Santa-hat bodysuit, gingerbread pyjamas. This time they are becoming a Christmas sack. That one is on Instagram too.
Two more baby clothes MAMA sweatshirts went on the table as well, and both customers told me to pick the thread colour myself once I had the onesie in my hands. One said maybe one of the yellows, the other a purple that matched. I like being trusted with that. You cannot choose a thread against a photo on a screen — you choose it with the fabric sitting next to the spool under the light.
Hospital blankets
Two curved hospital swaddle sweatshirts, and both customers are sending in their own blankets rather than using one of mine. One is a MAMA with a 2026 date and a teal that has to match a mermaid print. One is a GIGI going back to 2024, in lemon yellow.
One of them has a small add-on I keep thinking about: a heart cut from the same blanket, stitched onto the sleeve under the name, in the same thread as the front. Two inches of work, and it is the part she will look at.
That listing is here, and the whole keepsake range is in Memory Keepsakes.
Nurses
Eight nurse pieces across six different designs, the widest spread in a while. NICU, labor and delivery, a mother baby unit jacket, and one bow design.
Two matching full zips in jet black went out together. The others were all different: dark heather grey with baby feet in flamingo pink, athletic heather with one foot in bubble gum pink and the other in summer sky blue, and one where the customer asked for little dinosaur feet instead of baby feet. Preferably dinosaurs, she said. She got dinosaurs.
Nurse jackets and sweatshirts are in Nurse Embroidered Sweatshirts and Tshirts, including the curved NICU and the quarter zip and full zip.
Schools
The Classical Conversations Sewell tee opened for ordering and twenty-four shirts came in this week. Youth smalls sitting next to adult 2XLs on the same sheet, which tells you these are whole families ordering together. Sixteen in Heather Dust, eight in Heather Navy. Ordering closes Friday, October 23, shirts are made after that and take about two weeks, and everything is delivered together to Sewell — no shipping on this one.
And I built something new this week: the Haddonfield Middle School Bulldogs spirit wear fundraiser. Eight designs — graphic tees, a vintage stripe crewneck, a block letter appliqué crewneck, a mixed fabric floral and gingham crewneck, and embroidered quarter zips and mock necks for staff with an optional teacher name. Ten dollars from every item goes straight to the Student Council. That sale runs November 2 through November 15 and pickup is at the school.
Memory quilts
I also finished a queen size t-shirt memory quilt this week, backed in soft minky. Those take the longest of anything I make and they are the ones people hold onto hardest. The piecing is on Instagram.
How to order
Everything above starts the same way. Find the listing in Embroidered Shirts and Sweatshirts or Memory Keepsakes, pick your garment colour and size, and tell me in the personalisation box what you want it to say. Seasonal pieces are in Holiday & Seasonal, and the Christmas keepsakes have already started, so now is not too early.
If you are sending me your own fabric — a wedding dress, a hospital blanket, baby clothes, a drawer of t-shirts — order the listing first and I will send you the address to mail it to. Don't cut anything yourself. Send it as it is and let me find the piece I need.
If you would rather watch the work than read about it, I am on Instagram at @bbiad. That is where most of this ends up first.