Sometimes there’s a piece of clothing that you just can’t bear to cut into. I have a few baby dresses with darling details or a unique construction that would be lost if I took apart the garment. Some items were sewn by my maternal grandmother and have her tiny hand stitching at the hem and collar. I want to preserve the things my grandmother made by hand.
To keep my baby dress intact and also make it into a memory quilt, I used a flat press technique that I learned from memory quilter Zak Foster. I ironed the dress as flat as I could and used small hand stitches to attach it to the background. I then hand quilted the whole thing (dress and background together) and attached a binding. It hangs above the dryer in my laundry room, where I can see and appreciate it every day.
