9 Ideas Of Keepsakes Made From Wedding Dresses (2024)

You can turn your or your mom’s old gown into something that won’t collect dust in the closet and instead will make you smile every day. Furthermore, some keepsakes are rather useful.

Unlike a dress that’s never taken out of the preservation box, a tangible keepsake serves as a beautiful way to evoke memories and connect generations.

Let’s face it – daughters rarely wear their mother’s bridal gown on their big day. But a small item made from your dress, such as a clutch bag or jewelry piece, can be a meaningful and cherished addition to her bridal attire.

1. Cushion

Cushions are among the most popular keepsake made from wedding dress ideas, as they’re both useful and relatively easy to make.

A cushion from a wedding dress is a beautiful addition to your house interior. It will constantly remind you how happy you were on your big day and can be passed on to your children as an heirloom.

Most wedding dresses feature some kind of embellishments such as lace, beading, or appliques. These elements can turn your ordinary cushion into something much fancier and more meaningful.

A cushion from a wedding dress is a DIY-friendly keepsake project – all you need is a sewing stripper, scissors, measuring tape, iron, pins, sewing machine, needle, and thread. And a pillow insert, of course!

Most importantly, dry clean your dress before you start disassembling it – you want to work with stain-free fabric that won’t become yellow over time.

Then, remove any embellishments using a sewing stripper and cut out a section of your dress that will be used as a pillow cover. After preparing the cushion elements, iron them flat, and you can start sewing the cushion cover.

2. Quilted Blanket

A quilted blanket from a wedding dress is a much more complex project than a cushion, so you’d need substantial sewing experience to do it right. But just like a cushion, a wedding dress quilt makes a perfect family heirloom.

You need a lot of fabric to make even a small quilted blanket, so this project is best suitable for dresses with long, wide skirts from opaque fabric. Such a quilt makes a great bedspread for your or your child’s bedroom.

If you don’t have a lot of fabric to work with, use embellishments or lace from your dress to decorate a regular blanket.

That’s also much easier -get a blanket from nice fabric in light colors and use your wedding dress for appliques.

Alternatively, make a small quilted wall hanging and put it in a frame somewhere in your house as a reminder about your wedding day. In this case, you’ll likely even have some materials left to make another keepsake.

3. Jewelry Pouch or Box

What could make a better storage for your family heirlooms than a jewelry pouch or box made from your wedding dress? Furthermore, it’s a beginner-friendly DIY wedding dress keepsake project that doesn’t require extensive experience.

You’ll need a sewing machine to make a pouch. Remove embellishments you could use for decoration using a sewing stripper and cut out a section from your wedding dress skirt for the pouch base.

Then, make a paper pattern with rounded bottom corners and use it to cut out four pieces of fabric of the same shape.

Sew the pieces together, leaving the top free for the drawstring channel. Use lace or beading from your dress for decoration.

If you don’t have any sewing skills, get a nice wooden or velvet jewelry box and use your wedding dress fabric and embellishments to decorate it.

You can attach them to the box using fabric, wood, or hot glue, depending on the box material.

You won’t use a lot of fabric for a jewelry pouch, so you can either make multiple units or use the remaining material to do another project.

4. Photo Album

A photo album is yet another no-sew wedding dress keepsake idea.

All you need are scissors, a sewing stripper, and some hot glue. Such an album is just perfect for your wedding pictures, much better than generic wedding albums sold in stores.

Buy a plain photo album, preferably in matching your dress color – white, ivory, champagne, baby blue, or pink. Remove embellishments from your dress using a sewing stripper and cut out small pieces of fabric.

Then, use hot glue to attach the details to the album – it’s that simple. Alternatively, you may make a photo frame using the same method. To be fair, you can even make both since you won’t use much material for this project.

Using lace from your wedding dress to decorate not only the album cover but also the pages inside is another great idea. You may make a narrow lace trim on each page or glue lace and other fabric randomly.

5. Doll Dress

A doll dress is a romantic and creative wedding dress keepsake idea for the craftiest women. Of course, if you don’t have the necessary sewing skills, you can find someone to make it for you.

You may make a doll dress that replicates your real wedding dress design – perhaps, that’s the closest idea to preserving your dress in its initial state, only much smaller.

Alternatively, you can play a designer and create something completely new.

Naturally, you’d need to find a worthy doll to wear such a dress. Barbie dolls are a good option if you want to achieve a human-like look close to your real wedding attire.

Porcelain girl dolls, in turn, make an adorable family heirloom and kid’s room decoration. You may even order a custom handmade doll if you can’t find a ready-made one you like.

If a doll dress seems like overly painstaking work (and it is, as the details are so tiny), you may make children’s clothing instead. It doesn’t have to resemble a wedding dress, of course.

The most popular children’s clothing piece made from a wedding dress is a christening gown. This keepsake idea is also more useful than a doll dress – your children and later grandchildren can wear such a gown for their christening day.

6. Ornament

Wedding dress fabric and embellishments can be used for dozens of ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree or fireplace.

This wedding dress keepsake idea is perfect for vintage gowns that are too fragile to be used for something more substantial.

Furthermore, vintage wedding gown fabric is often discolored and may not look well in quilts, cushions, or children’s dresses.

The ideas of ornaments made from wedding dresses are endless. If you aren’t particularly crafty, you may glue pieces of lace or beads to ready-made glass balls, and if you have some sewing skills, you may make an angel-shaped ornament.

7. Clutch Bag

A clutch bag from a wedding dress makes a perfect bridal accessory for your daughter or granddaughter – or a fancy party bag for you. No designer bag could compete with such a one-of-a-kind clutch purse.

Envelope clutch bags are the easiest to make for beginners, but if you have good sewing skills, you may use your wedding dress fabric to cover a minaudière. Alternatively, take a ready-made box clutch and glue dress embellishments to it.

If you’re looking for a more practical keepsake made from a wedding dress, consider making a large shopper or tote bag.

8. Jewelry

Jewelry is passed on from generation to generation in many families.

Usually, this applies to jewelry made from precious metals and gemstones, but pieces made from your wedding dress can be even more valuable – at least symbolically.

Such jewelry pieces make the perfect wedding day accessory for your daughter and can even be worn on a daily basis, depending on the design. Of course, to make nice jewelry from a wedding dress, you need to have good crafting skills.

Thankfully, even if you’ve never made a pair of earrings or a necklace on your own, you can easily find someone to do it for you online.

You can use lace, beads, or other decorative elements to make jewelry pieces in any style, from large boho earrings to an elegant solitaire ring.

Make sure to choose the base material wisely – precious metals such as gold and silver will ensure a longer lifespan of your keepsake than regular metal.

9. Teddy Bear

A teddy bear from a wedding dress is the cutest keepsake idea you can possibly come up with. It will look adorable in your child’s room and can be later passed on to your grandchildren.

Making a teddy bear on your own isn’t simple, let alone sewing one from delicate wedding dress fabric. I recommend finding a professional to make a perfect teddy bear by your design.

A teddy bear is an excellent keepsake to highlight your best dress details – for instance, use the intricate lace pattern on the bodice for the teddy’s body and beads for the eyes.

A great idea is making two teddy bears: a bride and a groom bear. You can make both from your wedding dress, but if your husband is ready to sacrifice his suit, the teddies will be especially meaningful.