THE 7 STEPS TO DONATING A DRESS
We accept wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and other formal gowns that are clean and made from bridal satin, silk, or other heavier weight material in white, cream and pastel colors.
STEP 1: Take your dress out of storage.
❖ If your dress was not preserved, please clean it before donating. Most gowns can be washed on the gentle cycle at home and then hung up to dry. If it was preserved remove it from the large storage box as we cannot accept those boxes – and hang it up to air it out.
STEP 2: Look at your dress closely.
❖ Check the type of material – If the dress is made from a stretchy or jersey material or a lighter-weight/see-through polyester material, we most likely will not be able to use it. Many dresses from the 1970’s are not usable because once the lace overlay is lifted up, the satin sheath is see-through and does not give enough quality material for making angel gowns.
❖ Check if it is clean – if your dress is discolored/stained and did not come clean in the wash, we may not be able to use it. If it has dry rot, mold or mildew, we definitely cannot use that for the precious babies who will wear the angel gowns.
❖ Check for odours – if your dress retains a strong odour such as from smoke, mothballs, pets or perfume, we will be unable to use it.
❖ In some cases, we may be able to salvage the lace and embellishments even if we cannot use the material. However, if we are unable to use a dress, we reserve the right to re-donate it or dispose of it.
STEP 3: Understand that we cannot return a dress or any part of it to you once we have received it.
❖ We are unable to make hankies or keepsakes for you and we do not return angel gowns to dress donors. So, if you wish to keep a portion of your wedding dress for keepsakes, please do so. Just cut off the portion you’d like to keep, and we will work with the remaining fabric.
❖ Unsure if a future bride might like a part of your dress? Then we suggest keeping a piece that is somewhere between 12-30″ long by 3″ wide so a future bride could incorporate it as a belt or wrap it around her bouquet.
STEP 4: Please let the dress hang up for at least 3 days to air out.
STEP 5: While your dress is hanging up to air out, would you please take a picture of the full front of the gown, one up close of the bodice, and one of the full back? (Might require 2 pics to get the entire train photographed). Then post them to our Facebook messenger. We will review the dress from there.
STEP 6: Complete the top portion of this form and attach it with a safety pin to your dress.
STEP 7: If your dress meets our criteria and you are ready to donate it, please remove all tissue paper, hangers or other packaging and attach the donation form (from Step 6 above)
❖ If mailing, fold/roll your dress up to fit into as small of a box as possible. It is ok to send via ground mail or UPS or FedEx. ❖
If dropping off, please put your dress into a plastic bag. This is a residential address. Manitoba Angel Dresses 566 Municipal Road Winnipeg, MB R3R 1J3 Thank you all for your generosity. Our seamstresses really enjoy working with so many beautiful wedding dresses to make precious angel gowns. Thank you for being part of helping grieving parents know their babies are treasured and wrapped in love