We all have them…keepsake clothes that you’ll never wear again but you can’t bear to part with. We keep them because of the memories, but they kind of look like clutter.

• A twenty-something woman has a closet full of camp t-shirts that represent some very happy teenage summers.
• A mom stores ties and clothes from a beloved dad who passed away too young for his sons to know him.
• A grown daughter keeps lovely clothes from her mom that are not her style, but bring back fond memories.
• Parents keep adorable baby clothes, and the “baby” is off to college or older.
• A woman keeps a wedding dress packed away…ok, that’s just about all of us.

Recently I confronted my own soft and fuzzy demons, my kids baby clothes. In fact, I thought I had gotten rid of almost all of them, but I hadn’t. Neary two full SpaceBags lurked in the basement, and I know better than anyone that they actually rot in storage, eventually becoming useless to everyone.

Right here in Paoli, PA, Jennifer from Once Upon a Time Creation  skillfully refashions keepsake clothing into new gifts, and I couldn’t wait to see what she could do with my stash.

True story, I almost retrieved my items after I dropped them off. I didn’t think they were going to look good as a whole when I got them back. In fact, The batch included some burp cloths and baby blankets so we could get a good sized blanket out of it, but I was certain that was even going to make everything look more jumbled and worn. It turns out we had a fair amount of pink in each batch to pull together a cohesive look. Go figure.

Admittedly, my girls are young, and they don’t actually have any memories of these clothes. These are my memories. But it’s nice to see them again. The adorable bathing suits. The fuzzy duckling cape.

The adorable sun dresses and Phillies outfit for the under 2 crowd.

They may not have the memories, but the girls do enjoy the soft and colorful fabrics that now adorn their rooms.

The critics agree. Even with a little digital protection, you can see she loves it.

This was such a better purchase than all the things that I could buy at the mall, all the things that they could outgrow or break. I hope they use these blankets till they are threadbare. I feel the same way about the good China: use it, chip it, enjoy it. Make memories. That’s so much better than letting these adorable things rot in the basement.

Jen makes plenty of other keepsake items, too, like t-shirt quilts, scout badge pillows, Christmas ornaments and handbags from your memories. Now isn’t that better than having them take up space in the closet?

By the way, I know how it is. It’s emotionally hard to hand over these keepsakes and not know if you’ll ever get them back. Not only is this a real company, but Jen is a lovely person in real life, and I’m glad she’s a colleague of mine. Your memories won’t get any better treatment than in her studio.

Click here to visit Once Upon a Time Creation

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