Mom Makes Pillows for Kids from Late Dad's Flannel Shirt
This may seem like your run-of-the-mill flannel shirt upcycle.
Look again.
The note says: “This is a shirt I used to wear and when you hold it I’ll be there. Love Dad xoxo”.
Photo via Facebook/Reddit/Parentdish Canada
This memorial pillow was made out of the flannel shirt of a passed parent and “the best gift I ever received” according to Reddit user Velaniswin,
“My father passed away from lung cancer in July. Mom had these gifts made for me and my brother,” the users says.
What an incredible way to craft a keepsake to remember a loved one. And with more than 60,000 Facebook likes on Parentdish Canada, it’s clear not just craft-lovers who’ve been touched by this special project. It appears that DIY'ers and non-DIY'ers alike have been crafting objects from passed loved one’s clothes into bears, pillows, blankets and more, for years.
Parentdish follower Natasha Leigh Baehl comments, “My grandma made all of her kids and grandchildren aprons from my grampa’s shirts this Christmas and brought us all to tears! It is such an amazing gift!
Commenter, Sharon Shazza Morris uploaded this stuffed animal photo below and writes, "My dad passed 7 years ago, I recently made this little bear from his jacket and hope to make 10 more for my siblings, children, niece and nephew and my mum….. It still smells like him.”
Photo via Facebook
Others have created homemade pillows, teddy bears, garlands, quilts and aprons to keep the memory of loved ones alive. The special beauty of these projects is that it lets a cherished keepsake become part of daily life, rather than just having it tucked into a seldom-used drawer.
Linzee McCray over on the Etsy blog calls this “the sentimental art of upcycling"and shares ideas on how to repurpose wedding dresses, baby clothes, jewelry and more into heirlooms to honor the important people in our lives who have passed away.
Making these objects can be challenging. McCray points out how difficult it was for Tiffany Nelson, who creates custom heirloom memory quilts from baby clothing for Warm ‘N Fuzzies, to sew her first order. It was for the mother of a two-year-old who she had lost to cancer. “I had a hard time cutting into his clothing,” says Tiffany. “I have two boys of my own, and I could not stop thinking about the family and what they must be going through.”
Photo via Etsy
Personal mememtos can also be fashioned into a modern wearable object. The Etsy shop Chainsaw And Co’s Scrap line offers customers "a meaningful and personalized product that also withholds our upcycled objective.”
They construct the basic structure of the piece using scrap elements (i.e., chain, metal, wire) and customers provide their own keepsake to include. It could be a piece of leather, a stone, or even paper.
Photo via Etsy
The Etsy shop Bella Cosa Art has a different approach. Here they’ve made a necklace from a broken dish. Why not use this as inspiration to make your own wearable keepsake?
Photo via Etsy
Upcycling is a trend we already love for artistic and environmental reasons, but it is all the better when you incorporate an item with a special meaning.
