⚠️Sadly we have had to take the decision to suspend our Wedding Dress Exchange due to the effects of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

If you are really keen to donate your gown for little ones who could not stay for the time being please hang on to your gown at your home.

You should store your gown at home wrapped in acid free tissue paper and place within a secure pet, moth and damp free enviornment.

Hopefully as more is learned about this current pandemic the advice from Government around donated clothes will be updated.

We will post on this page to let you know when we are able to reopen our Wedding Dress Exchange.

Thankyou for the interest in donating your dress to us, you can do so by joining our Wedding Dress Exchange group on Facebook.

We often get questions on how to do this so the following information should answer lots of your questions.

Little Baby & Co Guidelines For Wedding Dress Donors.

When it comes to donated dresses we really are looking for something very special.

Little Baby & Co specialises in providing layettes for babes born still before 18 weeks. Most of our finished gowns will easily fit into the palm of your one hand. We love Charmeuse [bridal satin] and can use gowns that are mostly made from this material. Pure bridal silk charmeuse is used by LB & Co crafters to make wraps and tiny LB & Co signature gowns for the most delicate of little mites. Charmeuse with a soft satin finish in, all polyester, or a blend of fibers can be used to creat various sized gowns, shawls, wraps and fabric dignity caskets .

Photo examples of acceptable gown can be found on our Facebook group.

This next bit is very important.

PLEASE READ.

Little Baby & Co is a UK small charity focussed on supporting families facing babyloss under 20 weeks. Just to give you an idea for every baby who dies around the time of their birth 62 babies in the UK will die before 24 weeks. Thats 684 babies per day every day in the UK. Over a year that can leave 249,660 families grieving the loss of their baby before 24 weeks…..

Our funds are limited and we always give priority to grieving families and hospitals. We simply cannot cover the cost of postage and packing to send a gown on to a volunteer seamstress, so we have set up the Wedding Dress Exchange to match a seamstress with a Dress donor.

You may provide the location of your gown by your postal town and only IF a volunteer seamstress lives there might it be possible to arrange for a private collection. Most of our seamstresses, if they are able to accept a gown, will need you to send that gown by post to them.

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Our seamstresses can NOT make keepsakes to send to you made from the dress you send, however if you are offered this you are more than welcome to accept. If you are in the sad situation of donating your dress in memory of your own beloved baby who has died do let the volunteer seamstress who accepts it know. If they have enough time available they may be able to make a little something to send to you for your own baby’s memory box, but this will be an agreement between yourself and kind etiquette would be to offer the cost of postage. Little Baby & Co can hold no responsibility for any problems that may arise.

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Based on the costs of post if you do NOT live in the UK we recommend that you check the costs of both packing and sending your dress on to the UK. The costs can be prohibitivaly expensive and there may be a charity in your own country who would love to accept your gown.

We can only accept dresses that meet the following strict criteria:

👰🏼🤵🏻 Must be a traditional wedding dress colour: white, Ivory, cream,champagne or oyster. We cannot accept dresses in any other colours.

👰🏼🤵🏻 Plain or very small flat patterned fabric only. If the fabric is patterned please could you provide a photo of the pattern next to a 2p coin to show the size of the pattern design.

👰🏼🤵🏻 We are sorry but we cannot make use of beaded or similarly adorned fabric. The babes our gowns fit can be snuggled in the palm of one of your hands and they are very delicate. Beadwork and similar embelishments no matter how small will damage their delicate skin. 😞

👰🏼🤵🏻 Dresses that do NOT have a full tulle/lace/similar skirt. Again we simply cannot use these fabrics to create gowns for babies under 18 weeks. For the babes we dress these fabrics are just too rough for their very delicate skin.

👰🏼🤵🏻 The gown must not be badly discoloured. If your unsure please post clear photos of any discolouration marks.

👰🏼🤵🏻 Dresses with dirt marks around the hem and sleeves are fine, there is no need to have your dress dry cleaned but we would be grateful if you wish to run it through a cold 20 degrees cycle if the seamstress asks you to do so. Mud and similar black marks around the hem and train will nearly always wash out and because are gowns are so tiny if they don’t we can simply work around them. Please post clear photos of any large marks so our volunteer seam-stresses can advise if the dress can be used to make LB & Co’s layettes and gowns.

👰🏼🤵🏻 Due to hygiene reasons if your dress has any signs of mildew or mould from storage we will be unable to use it. Hopsitals will not accept items made from fabrics damaged by mould or mildew.

IF YOU THINK YOUR DRESS MEETS THE GUIDELINES PLEASE JOIN OUR DRESS EXCHANGE GROUP TO HELP FIND A SEAMSTRESS TO DONATE YOUR DRESS TO, THE LINK IS BELOW: their

Wedding Dress Exchange

Babyloss groups that create gowns may not be able to accept all the gowns that are offered to them but don’t worry, there are other ways your gown could go on to help others.

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Donate to your local Children’s Hospice Shop to help raise funds for families of children with life limiting conditions.

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Donate to a Gift Of A Wedding or alternatively Wish For A Wedding and make memories to cherish for a UK couple facing terminal illness.

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Want to make a difference for families facing a crisis? The Red Cross accept donated Wedding and bridesmaid Dresses.