The other week, I saw on Facebook that my cousins (Bonnie and Diane) had their mother’s wedding dress made into a cute memory teddy bear.

I thought, I could do that – and so this project began.

I asked our children if they were okay with the idea of turning my wedding dress into a memory teddy bear. Each liked the idea – but our youngest daughter (Deb) said, “Who will get the bear?” Thinking that being the youngest she would be on the bottom of the list. 🙂

Then began the process of making 4 patchwork teddy bears out of my dress and Cerwin’s wedding suit coat. In the thinking process I remembered that Cerwin’s sister Velda had her bridesmaid’s dress at our 40th wedding anniversary (18 1/2 years ago). I called to see if she still had it. She wasn’t sure but checked – and it was still there! I will add bits of that blue color to the bears.

Next, I stopped in to talk to a young Amish woman in our area who displayed her memory bears and pillows in Vendor Hall at TFC’s Truck Rally several years ago. She said she doesn’t do that since they have children, but her mother will be able to do that.

By the time I took the items to her a few days later, I added another project – making 5 small (7″) patchwork pillows from my mother’s wedding dress and a shirt I have that was my dad’s. (I have 4 siblings.)

Daddy’s shirt was worn later in his life, but matches the old, faded wedding dress of Mother’s. I asked if she could make small 7″ pillows with those two items, and if she could make 2 small pillows with the beautiful pockets on Mother’s dress. She loved that idea. My sister Nancy and I will get the fancy pillows. I wanted small pillows, because we are each at the age of getting rid of things. These items will fit on a shelf or in a small area.

Our wedding picture.

Our daughter-in-law, Kristen said, “Please take pictures before everything is cut into pieces and save a 3″ piece of material for my scrapbooking.”

Thus, our daughter Deb and our son-in-law Roy took the following pictures on Sunday, March 27 – 58 1/2 years after our wedding.

Cerwin fits his suit coat almost perfectly, because he lost about 20 pounds a few years ago. He does not have the slacks from his suit and says they would not fit. I was pleased to find his bow tie in one of the suit pockets. I don’t think he wore the bow tie since our wedding. I doubt that he wore the suit coat very often, either.

My wedding dress may appear to fits but it took a few safety pins to make it look that way. 🙂 There is a sizable opening in the back. I gained about 10 pounds, and it was very fitted on our wedding day.

I also took a few pictures when I got home. The three items: Cerwin’s coat, Velda’s bridesmaid’s dress and my dress.

Like I said, the bears will be patchwork and made with Cerwin’s coat and my dress. The ears and bottoms of their feet will be blue. There are 3 buttons on Cerwin’s coat. Three bears will have button belly buttons and one bear will wear Cerwin’s bow tie.

My mother’s wedding dress – which was originally navy blue. The buttons were also navy blue. For some reason the outside ring faded. How does a 79-year-old dress go from navy to purple?

Look at those pretty pockets – the reason I wanted something done with them.

Notice how my dad’s shirt matches mother’s dress. The buttons will accent the center of each pillow. They even match the light blue in Daddy’s shirt.

This is their wedding photo.

Yesterday, I took the young Amish woman, her two children, any my precious cargo to her parents in Leola. It will probably be two or three weeks until the bears and pillows are finished.

I will make sure to show them to you.