A bright pink bridesmaid dress has been sitting in the back of my closet since April of 2006. It’s never been worn. I purchased it for a wedding that never took place. I’ve tried to get rid of it on a number of occasions. I shipped it to a place called Glamour Closet in California, which used to pay 50% for any bridesmaid dress that sold. Unfortunately, shortly after the dress arrived, the store owner changed her business model, and within a month the dress was shipped right back to me.
Years ago I tried to sell it on eBay. When it failed to sell I planned on giving it away at a prom fair, but somehow I kept missing the dates. Every time I clean out my closet I stare at this dress and wonder how I can make good use of it, but somehow after all of the other clutter and unwanted items are discarded that poor bridesmaid dress remains. I have the best intentions to give it away and then somehow I never actually get rid of it.
Lately rather than getting rid of it, I’ve been thinking about making something out of it. I’ve moved it out of the closet and onto my dining room table where I’ll be forced to do something with it. My two-year-old niece loves to play dress up. I think I might be able to make some fancy little skirts or tutus out of it.
If anyone has any ideas of what to do with an unwanted bridesmaid dress please leave me a comment. I either need to make something out of this dress or finally get rid of it.
I made my old dress into some throw pillows for a birthday party.. Little girl was turning 8 and the dress was lavender. Might not be able to sell it but think creatively! 🙂
xoxo-nklsmom
Have you ever used craigslist.org? Prom season is coming up and maybe you could sell it there…
Send it to the Crazy Quilt society — they always have a Prom Dress Swap at their annual conference (which is around July 4th this year). That way, you can write it off as a donation.
see http://www.crazyquilt.com
If your niece is 2, she might like it to play dress up in. Just cut the skirt off short so that she can play in it….5 mins & she can be a princess 🙂
As someone who had a difficult time affording a prom dress because I grew up in a poor family, I would suggest that you make the effort to take a good picture of it and post it for free on Craigslist. There are a lot of young girls out there who would love a new dress to wear to a formal event. The idea that you would cut it up for playclothes is very sad I think. Just my $0.02.
oh man .. I wish I had waited. I got rid of one I have kept in the back of the closet for almost 7 years now just last week. These are much better ideas than what I did with mine. 🙁
Thank you for all of the suggestions. I actually loved the suggestion of making throw pillows out of it. I did this a long time ago with an old gingham dress I made in high school and couldn’t bear to get rid of.
Now anonymous is making me feel very bad about cutting my dress up for other purposes. So I need to decide if I should try to find it a rightful owner.
A reader emailed me about The Bridesmaid Party’s donate your dress program. According to the site the program helps women in Lea Toto, Africa and Darra-i-Nur, Afghanistan. The site says, by donating your dress, you will give these women the opportunity to reuse and transform your dress for a better use or product. The impact of your gift will empower these women towards financial freedom and a better way of life.
As a bonus The Bridesmaid Party will give you a $25.00 credit towards the future purchase of $40.00 or more, but of course at this point it’s not at all about the money.
If you do decide to get rid of it, you could donate it to a community theatre or high school theatre department. They always need weird things. Or donate it to something like The Glass Slipper Project (there are a few other organizations like it).
I am the “anonymous” above… and I think The Glass Slipper Project is an awesome idea. I did not know such organizations existed. For $5 in postage you could make sure it went to a good home and made a difference in someone else’s life. That is a pretty cool thing. Of course, back in the day when I went to Prom, I did not have access to Ebay. BUT, probably most girls who’s families can’t afford a prom dress, also don’t have a home computer today either. Anyway, whatever you decide, I did not intend to make you feel guilty. I just hoped to make you aware that something that was sitting in the back of your closet might mean a lot to someone else. Often we overlook the things we take for granted, not realizing that a large percentage of the world’s population has at most 1-3 sets of clothes… one pair of shoes, etc.
@anonymous — I completely agree that this bright, pink dress could make some young girl very happy. After all, isn’t that what the movie Pretty in Pink was all about? I have decided to donate the dress to charity.
found a link to a bunch of those prom dress donation sites:
http://www.cosmogirl.com/fashion/prom/prom-dress-donation
(yes, it’s a cosmogirl site…oh well)
Here is a list of state specific programs.