To just bin my wedding dress?

[KarlWrenbury]

Sitting in the loft in a bag. Over 25 years old. No daughters Etc. It just seems ridiculously sentimental. You know it was nice Etc but it’s just some fabric.

did anyone bin theirs

Gave mine to a charity shop recently (divorce 20 years on) they sold it for £75 not bad considering I paid £130!

@MissMaple82 you say that - I would have loved to have given mine to a charity shop or charity that makes outfits for babies. I contacted 5 different ones and they said they’d been overwhelmed with donations and couldn’t receive any more. It’s not a simple as ‘just donate everything’ to charity when they’re all so full they can’t take any more

This is lovely op.

Depending on the material and general cut you could get it altered into something modern?

My dress was a fairly simple cut with a nice corset-type top, so I am in the process of cutting off the wide skirt part, alter the sleeves a bit and it will be perfect to wear, e.g., with a jeans jacket and a nice, modern skirt.

The material was silk-style, so the skirt will be made into hair-friendly pillow covers.

Do you know any seamstresses who could advise?

If charities won’t take it pop it in to your local secondary school or college as the art students can make use of the fabric

Yes, someone might even want to cut it up to make something (a quilt) or whatever. Don’t literally bin it.

If you can hang on until October and Freecycle it then someone will adore it for a corpse bride costume.

Or try freecycling it now. Saves you the hassle of taking it to the charity shop - hopefully someone will come and collect it.

Or if you want to bin it, at least take it to a clothes recycling bin.

My dress was made into clothes for still born babies. I contacted all the large charities who all said they were full, but somehow through some pretty robust googling I found someone local to me who did this for the hospital my own children were born in.

Failing that, I would hold on until Halloween sort of time and put it on Facebook for sale at e.g £5 (if you were planning on giving it away anyway) and I'm sure someone will take it off your hands for a costume.

I gave mine to Bonnie Babies. They made a little bag out of some of the material, which I keep in my wedding keepsake box, and the rest for babies born sleeping.

I gave mine to the school I was working in as they were doing a fashion show based around weddings was very odd

Yes charity, I bought one there once for fancy dress.

seriously people going around just binning things that can be donated ! Why would you not even attempt to give it to charity

I've been divorced for a very long time but still had my dress, my daughters friends used it for a college photography project. It was quite a niche dress so glad it got a reuse and will probably be used again for other arty/drama things.

You can donate it to a charity that makes gowns for still born babies or gives wedding gowns to less advantaged women.

Very wasteful to just bin it when there are so many options for donation.

Yabu go ‘bin’ it. YAnbu to rehome it. I’m in a similar position. Just clearing my loft and the 26!year old dress is there. I Have two DD’s 21 &18 but they would want their own dress. I’m thinking of putting it on Gumtree and if it doesn’t sell, donating to a charity shop.

Nice idea but they’ll not taking an my more.

Mine's still in the loft 30 years on - it isn't a meringue but is full skirted with a train. I was hoping that DD would use the fabric for their dress, but that most likely won't happen now (non-binary, not planning to get married). I may keep it for nostalgic reasons or donate to charity.

My sister bought hers from Oxfam and had it altered to fit. I don't know for sure but I think she may have donated it back.

onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/category/bridal-wedding-dresses?N=3336598367+343561101&Ns=product.creationDate|1&Ntk=&Nr=AND(product.active:1,NOT(sku.listPrice:0.000000))&No=0&Nf=&Nrpp=30
Amazing bargains on here! Wish I’d had that opportunity 26 years ago!

MissMaple - I agree in this example it would be good to donate a wedding dress to charity but not everything should be given be charity shops. I manage a charity shop and the amount of absolute rubbish we are given is shocking. Not all charities can recycle textiles and we have to pay to get rid of unsaleable items. Yesterday I had to sift through six black sacks of hideous, dirty textiles after someone kindly said 'this is lightly used children's clothing, I am sure they will be useful' .
I really find it hard to understand why people still seem to think that charity shops want broken items, chipped china, torn books, old magazines etc etc. Why take these items to a charity shop???

I’m glad I kept mine. We had an exhibition of wedding dresses at the local church. It was really interesting to see how styles had changed over the years. Sizes too, most of the older ones were tiny.

If you can't find anywhere to donate it, I'd speak to a seamstress about upcycling it. Doesn't have to be another dress, you could some lovely silk/satin blouses or camis out of it. Or silk/satin pillowcases.

They don't have to be white, either, you can dye the material.

I took bags to my charity shop yesterday after having a clear out. They check before accepting and have a list old what they don’t accept- DVDs, broken items, cots etc.

There are plenty of things people 'donate' that should be binned that the charity just has to dispose of.

Benji ... I try to do that in my charity shop but some of my volunteers are nervous about refusing donations - it can be done tactfully and yesterday someone was very understanding when I politely refused items that were clearly unsaleable. But we do occasionally get someone who is outraged that turn donations away.