Running from the Law: Something Old, Something New

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Something Old, Something New

Since having children, I have started to hang on to little items, memories and trinkets I think they might like to have later in life to remind them of their parents and their childhood. I have a box for each kid, filled with cards, photos, paintings, gifts, ticket stubs, clothing items, etc. that I hope to give them someday (maybe once they have children of their own) and walk them through the items and talk about how much fun we had and how much they were loved and wanted. Since losing all my childhood items in my mother's house fire this summer, this concept has become even more precious to me and I hope someday they'll appreciate these little memories as much as I do.

One thing I have been wanting to hand-down to the kids is something special from the day that Ryan and I got married. Our wedding day was hands-down one of the greatest days of my life and I thought a lot that day about the family that we would (hopefully) create together. I absolutely loved my wedding dress and have never felt more beautiful in my life, but after everything was said and done, I decided to sell the dress. I had a lot of people ask if I was going to save my dress for a future daughter, but I knew that the chances of having a daughter that wouldn't want to pick out her own dress and make her own decisions was slim to none, so I sold it. I don't regret it for a second, but a part of me does wish that I had a special piece of that day to pass on to her. 
Which is why I'm SO excited about this! One of the next additions to Mim's memory box is going to be this little white dress she's wearing, which is made from the button-down shirt that Ryan wore on our wedding day! There is this amazing new startup company called Petite Marin that makes the cutest little children's outfits from hand-me-down buttoned men's shirts. For girls, they offer this gorgeous little flutter sleeve tea dress, with buttons on the front and a zip back. For boys, they make the cutest little heirloom-quality Ross romper with side and shoulder buttons. 
I just can't even get over how cute this little dress is and I'm so sad that it's freezing cold outside and she can't wear it everyday. Although, it is special, so I don't want her destroying it by jumping in mud puddles or covering it with sucker slobber. I really wish I had found this company before Mim's baptism, because this would have been such a sweet baptismal dress. However, I'm just thrilled to be able to hand this down to her someday with the hopes that maybe she has a daughter (or granddaughter) that can wear this dress and hear the story about our beautiful wedding and the amazing family that began that day. 
Mimmy loved the dress and was so cute when I put it on her. She twirled around and around, laughing like crazy! I told her how pretty her dress was and she'd just smile and say, "mine mine mine" like one of those sea gulls from Nemo (her favorite show). She was also fixated this day on her Cat book, which she calls "Mao" (meow) and carries around the house with her at all times. I wanted to get her upstairs to take photos in better light, but she wouldn't leave her book and I didn't feel like dragging her and the camera and that giant book up the stairs, so this is what we got. She loved wearing the dress and I can't wait for summer when I can put her in this and some ruffle socks with Mary Janes. Cuteness overload coming soon. 
The dress is really well-made and sturdy. I love all the details, like the buttons on the front, the flutter sleeves and the label in the back of the dress. I also love the story behind the company that is making the clothing. Two best friends from Marin county in California are merging vintage fabrics with new playful patterns to create unique one-of-a-kind pieces. I love that the clothing is all locally made and it's a family-run company just getting started. 
I've been following Petite Marin on Instagram for a while and I am absolutely GAGA over the plaid flannel dresses they've done for winter and the holidays! I want to raid my husband's closet and send them everything that he no longer wears. How cool would it be to have some of those special pieces (a shirt from your first date with your husband, your father's favorite shirt or your grandfather's old flannel shirt) made into something you could pass down from one generation to the next. I've also seen that they make memory pillows from shirts and are thinking about expanding into lovies. I want them all!


Have you ever up-cycled or re-purposed special clothing?
What would you pick: dress, romper, memory pillow or lovie?


*I received this product free of charge for my honest review and feedback. All opinions are 100% my own (and Mim's). Special thanks to Petite Marin for the dress and for being so awesome!

28 comments:

  1. She is SO adorable in that little dress!! I also love that purple dress and bonnet!

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  2. OMG that's such a wonderful idea! I'd love something like that for Sadie... my friend has a teddy bear that is made out of one of her grandmothers shirts and its one of her prized possessions. Treasure it.

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  3. That is such a great idea! Kudos to you momma for thinking ahead on memorable keepsakes!

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  4. What a great idea for a company! I love that she has a dress made from something on your wedding day, and it is just adorable!

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  5. That dress is absolutely adorable!! And how special that it is from your wedding? Double amazing! :)

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  6. Such a unique and cute idea! Love how it turned out. Just precious. Would love to learn more about your keepsake boxes as well.

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  7. Oh my word! I can't even tell you how much I love this! The dress came out perfect and it's such a wonderful thing with an amazing love story to pass down. I'm in awe!! And I have been saving things I want to pass down to Mason, but I need to organize them in one spot! Thanks for the reminder. That will be one of my goals this year!

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  8. Oh my gosh, this is the COOLEST THING EVER! Thanks for sharing. This is awesome.

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  9. Just stop yourself! How adorable! This is so, so special!

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  10. That dress is as adorable as the little girl wearing it! And the story is amazing. When my eldest daughter got married a few years ago, during my husband's speech at the reception, he held up the tiny dress that she wore home from the hospital when she was born. He said that it was the first dress he had ever bought for her, and that he could only imagine then how beautiful she would be this day in her wedding dress - the last dress he would buy for his little girl. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

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  11. ADORABLE!!!! I have never heard of this before, but I absolutely love it. And Mom looks like a little angel in her dress. :)

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  12. Such a great idea! Love the dress and that there are companies out there that will create things like this, nothing better than things that remind us of certain events/memories! My mum made a keepsake memory box for me when I was younger and I love looking at it and remembering childhood memories.

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  13. I absolutely love this idea and that dress. I've been keeping memory boxes and have saved a few of their clothes that have special memories in it. When my son was a toddler, he had this one shirt with a train on it that he wore almost every day. He loved it and would make a big deal about wearing that same shirt. When he finally got too big for it, I was about to throw it away (with a little bit of joy), but then decided to make it into a pillow for him. I love that dress on Mim.

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  14. I love this idea and wish I had a little girl to do this for! I too love passing down sentimental items. Not that it ever became an issue, but I didn't plan on keeping my dress for the same reason. I figured it would mean more to me to go shopping and pick out the dress with a daughter.

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  15. I can't even. Mim in that special dress is perfection! What an awesome little company...thanks for sharing!!

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  16. That is so precious! What a fabulous way to preserve a memory. Mim looks adorable and I'm sure the dress will be treasured for generations to come.

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  17. I LOVE this concept and Mom looks stunning in that dress!

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  18. Holy cow. Best idea ever!! I still have my dress, but sweet lord, I would love something like this that Julia could actually wear for a while.

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  19. This is genius! And Mim's dress turned out lovely! Who would of thunk it started life as a man's shirt?! So I totally have visions of my girls wearing my wedding dress, is that naive?!

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  20. That is so awesome! What a beautiful gift she will treasure. I kept my weddin dress mainly because I'm a sap. I doubt Emmy will want to wear my dress but I do plan on taking yearly pictures of her in the dress. Just for fun. :)

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  21. That is awesome! I love that she'll hopefully someday dress her daughter in her grandfather's dress shirt from his wedding. That's really special. Love it. :)

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  22. This is the sweetest thing and Mim is absolutely beautiful in that dress. I love the crisp, classic WHITE!! :) Such a keepsake..!! I've never heard of this before, so I will definitely be keeping this in mind.

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  23. Oh my goodness that is just the sweetest idea. I absolutely love it and the dress is gorgeous. Maybe a grand baby will wear that sweet dress someday too :).

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  24. I am obsessed with this idea! That dress is beautiful and so cute on Mim! I had a garter made out of my mom's old wedding dress. And I kept mine. I have driends who have turned their mom's dresses into a rehearsal dinner dress, so maybe that will happen to it one day. That is if I ever get a baby girl...

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  25. This is actually amazing!!!!! I love this idea! Sweet Mim is so so so cute in that shirt-dress.

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  26. This is SO special!!! I love that there is a company out there that can do this. Mim looks so sweet in her new dress!
    I kept my wedding dress though I have NO clue what I'm going to do with it now since I have a boy lol. Oh well. I'll figure something out. I actually wish that my mom had kept hers so I could have done something with part of it, especially given the circumstances, since she couldn't physically be there with us. But we used my parents wedding champagne glasses and my dad had their wedding anniversary and Seth and mine engraved on it, so that was just as special.

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  27. So stinkin cool! Love the concept.

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