Crafting can allow us to find beautiful ways to memorialized a loved one, but it can also provide comfort in times of grief. At a time when you are feeling a lot of emotions, especially difficult ones, engaging the creative part of your brain can be a valuable way to process your thoughts and feelings.
While I am not an expert on grief, I host crafting workshops and I have witnessed (and personally experienced) the multiple therapeutic benefits of crafting. The purpose of using crafting as a coping tool for grief is explained in detail in this article by licensed therapist Kelly Brown and in this article from PsycheCentral. The bottomline of both articles is that artistic expression can be a mindful activity, where you focus your attention on the creative process versus the pain you are experiencing.
The motivation for writing this blog post is because when many of my customers are grieving the loss of a loved one, they have come to me to purchase a mannequin to use in a creative project to help them grieve. I wanted to share these ideas with others.
Sometimes the reason for the mannequin purchase is because they are want to display articles of clothing of the deceased at the memorial. The display serves as a physical reminder of their personality and the things that brought them joy.
For example, one of our customers whose father was a military man and an outdoor sportsman created these displays at his memorial.
Another customer, whose mother was a ballroom dancer, displayed several of the gowns she wore in dance competitions.
Other times, our grieving customers are buying a mannequin because they are tasked with getting rid of the clothing owned by the deceased. They want a mannequin to photograph the clothing so they can sell them online. And they want to keep a treasured article of clothing of the deceased on permanent display in their home.
Many of our customers are experimenting with different ways to repurpose the personal belongings of the deceased so that they can have a tangible reminder that makes them feel happy versus sad.
I have compiled a variety of examples below which do not require extensive crafting experience and can be done inexpensively, often with materials you already have at home. If you don’t have a mannequin or dress form, we sell used ones at discount prices.
1 One of my favorite craft projects is to repurpose articles of clothing worn by the deceased into a totally “new” garment. Paganoonoo.com is a design house in California that sells patterns to make it easy to create innovative garments from repurposed tops, dresses and shirts that belonged to a family member. Here is one example of a pattern where multiple men’s shirts were redesigned into a new shirt for a woman to wear.
This is a creative solution to the problem of having a garment worn by your loved one that is not your size or style. Or when multiple family members want the same garment. And a great way to wear something that is not only comfortable but comforting!
When the owner of the company came to my warehouse to buy a dress form, I fell in love with this concept. I have purchased several of her repurposed items and get complements whenever I wear one.
2 While it might be an honor to inherit a collection of porcelain china, what if the collection doesn’t fit your casual dining lifestyle? Or, perhaps you don’t have the room to store the collection for the rare occasions you might use them. Consider breaking up the pieces and creating a mosaic art piece like this:
A tutorial on how this one was made is here. Breaking up that china into pieces with a hammer (or throwing it on the ground) is also a good way to channel your anger. But if you don’t have the heart to destroy the china, here are some ideas from Martha Stewart to repurpose them while keeping them intact
3 If the deceased was a musician and they left behind a pile of sheet music that no one else in the family can use, turn it into a decoupage project.
4 The same project can be done if someone was a seamstress and left behind a stack of patterns. Adorn the finished piece with their jewelry.
5 Speaking of jewelry, if they left behind lots of costume jewelry that you don’t ever see yourself wearing, consider turning the collection into a mosaic like this. The time and patience required to design this is certainly a very mindful activity.
6 Or you can simply display the deceased person’s jewelry like this one below which is better than having the jewelry in a drawer where you can’t see it.
7 If you were left with a collection of lace handkerchiefs, tablecloths, or doilies, this is a lovely way to repurpose them.
8 Although this display is in a retail store, it is an example of how you can display a collection of scarves (or ties) in your home.
9 Every year Mannequin Madness sponsors a dress form Christmas tree contest and many of the entrants have created a design in memory of a loved one. For example, Janine Edmonds who won second place in our 2023 contest submitted this tree which included jewelry worn by her grandmother. She also cut up her grandmother’s fur coat to decorate around the neck.
Here is one that another participant, Eileen Pearsall, submitted as a tribute to her son.
Clara-Nicole of She’s Crafty Too created this angel tree as a tribute to her 19 year-old daughter who passed away.
10 I saw this dress form tree on Pinterest. I think this was created for an anniversary or birthday party. But it is a creative way to display vintage photographs of the deceased in a small space, especially if you ditch the parasol.
11 In addition to selling mannequins, our company hosts flower crown making classes (using mannequin heads as a canvas) with faux flowers. Many of customers have made a memorial headdress by using the flowers or colors that remind them of their loved one. And sometimes they add personal items owned by the deceased such as jewelry or trinkets to the headdress.
One of our customers, Kelly Seegers, was getting married and came to us to make her bridal headdress. Her father had died a few months before her wedding. To have his “presence” at the wedding, she took one of his favorite ties and wrapped it around the headband
There is something mystical about the process of making something by hand that can temporarily subdue life’s sorrows. The process helps to transport us from one moment to the next despite the weight we may be carrying. Crafting gives us the power of productivity during those times when our lives seem out of our control.
Throughout history, people have turned to creativity. Victorian women hand-stitched brooches in their bereavement sometimes including locks of hair of the deceased person; Americans embroidered weeping willows in silk following the death of their inaugural President Washington; Missouri Pettway (1900–1981) of Gee’s Bend made a pieced cotton quilt in mourning for her husband from his work clothes; and today nearly 50,000 panels compose the Aids Memorial Quilt, each handmade in memory of loved ones lost.
Creativity is for everyone, not just designated artists. And even if you are not the person doing the actual crafting of the item, finding creative solutions to incorporate your loved one’s things into your life can prove to be a satisfying way of moving through your grief.
