In March of 2007 my in laws had a renewal of vows ceremony for their 50th anniversary. Which is all fine and good. However, mil decided she had to have bridesmaids and groomsmen. Men look handsome and dashing in a tux at any age. Women do not look so great in bridesmaid dresses after say 25 or so. The three sisters in law are all over 45. To say we weren't real happy about being coerced into wearing these dresses is kind of an understatement. At the time I threatened to turn my dress into memorial pillows or something. After we got home the dress got stuffed in the back of the closet.

Then this year in March I found the perfect pattern in Quilter's World. I started the search for the perfect fabrics to go along with the dress fabric. I found the blue silk at the quilt show in Denver in May and I finally found the outer border fabric at a quilt shop in Kansas at the end of May.

The large star points and cornerstones in the outer border are fabric from my actual dress. That stuff was a HUGE pain to work with!!

The binding is on the second one and the third one needs trimmed and the binding put on.

Oh, the whole seashell theme is because the ceremony took place on the beach in North Carolina.

This is beautiful. What a great job.

Great fabric choices. Love it!

lol! I love it!

I SO have a bridesmaid dress that I'd love to chop up and make stuff with. Very pretty colour, not a very pretty dress. :lol:

Beautiful!

What a great way to make lemonade from lemons ;-)

That's one way to ensure you never have to wear it again! Love it, and love the title of the post.

But it is beautiful :mrgreen:

Beautiful! Great JOB!

Very nice!

That's really pretty! BUt I wanted to see a picture of you in the dress- Hee, Hee. You know a before and after.....

LOL, not happening!

Lovely!

Wonderful quilt.

Nice!

That's amazing, I had my dress from my SIL's wedding made into a set of pillows for her before I could sew well enough to do it myself. She still loves them and keeps them on her couch :)

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing

Thats very pretty.

Outstanding.. Keep up the good work.

You turned that 'coercion' into a thing of beauty; congratulations! It looks really nice. Maybe you should include a picture of the bridesmaids on the label on the back. That would be fun.

that was nice that you could make use of the dress and have an memorable reminder of the 50th party !

Stunning.. Great colors !

You did a great job!

See, I just knew that somebody SOMEWHERE would use a bridesmaid dress again! This is very creative and meaningful! Well done!

gorgeous quilt.

Very pretty, you do beautiful work.

Beautiful !!!!!!!

Very nice wall quilt. Have you considered using some of it in an old fashioned crazy patch quilt or lap quilt?

As difficult as that fabric was to work with I'm not going to do anything else with it.

Wonderful choice of fabric. Love the results.

Now there are two done!!

I love it great idea

What a Great idea!!! Are you giving her the dress as a gift?