Nearly every client I’ve worked with has some sort of textile that has transcended its original purpose and has turned into memorabilia. It could be baby clothes, heirloom linens, a beloved relative’s item of clothing, or T-shirts that are souvenirs from memorable events.
Sometimes these items are taking up valuable drawer or closet space. I encourage clients to separate these items from active clothing or linens and put them into a memorabilia box so that they don’t complicate decisions about what to wear or what to use now.
An even better idea for these items is to display them. What better way to honor your loved ones and relive your memories than making those items part of your decor?
Lavivi Love Quilts
One way to do this is to turn these textiles into a memory quilt. My colleague Harlan Sexton, a former Professional Organizer, is the founder of Lavivi Love Quilts. She will turn your fabrics into a beautiful keepsake that can be used or displayed. I have seen samples of her quilts in person, and they are stunning. In addition to clothes, Harlan says she can include household textiles, monograms, celebratory wine stains, chuppah cloth fragments, even your mother’s elbow-length evening gloves!
Harlan does not work with T-shirts, so if you have a T-shirt collection, consider Project Repat, which “creates a high quality, affordable t-shirt quilt with minimal carbon impact that ‘repatriates’ textile jobs back to the United States,” as their website states. Their background story is fascinating.
Another interesting T-shirt option is Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts which uses different block sizes to accommodate the variable logo sizes on T-shirts.
However you decide to turn your clothes and linens into memorabilia, the result will be something you will always treasure.
