Utahn creates infant burial clothing from donated wedding dresses

Utahn creates infant burial clothing from donated wedding dresses

(Melody Penrod)


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SPRINGVILLE — Spurred by wanting to serve more, a Springville woman created a business that transforms old wedding dresses into burial clothing for infants.

Melody Penrod said she’s been a seamstress all her life and said she felt she needed to use her skills to serve her community. She came up with an idea after finding an online East Coast company that took old, donated wedding dresses and repurposed them into white burial tuxedos and dresses for infants.

“I just was feeling that I needed to do more with my life and I wanted to be of service to people,” Penrod said. “I felt that this was the best way to serve and give back to the community. And this is a little known or often ignored area (where) not many people are helping out.”

Penrod said she she decided to create something beautiful to donate to the grieving mothers.

Penrod created “Tender Mercies” in October 2014 and began spreading the word to get donated wedding dresses and pastel-colored prom dresses. Since then, she’s received 200 dresses and is currently working with seven Utah hospitals.

Penrod developed patterns for infant dresses and tuxedos of various sizes. She said it takes her about 1.5 hours to finish a piece of clothing and she has recruited 18 seamstresses to help. She plans to donate 25 items of burial clothing each month to one of the NICUs.


I just was feeling that I needed to do more with my life and I wanted to be of service to people. I felt that this was the best way to serve and give back to the community. And this is a little known or often ignored area (where) not many people are helping out.

–Melody Penrod, business owner


South Jordan resident Tami Diaz said she heard about the initiative from her friend who had a baby in the NICU. Diaz had recently moved and didn’t want to store her 10-year-old wedding dress anymore.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I want to find something special to do with it because I don’t really want to keep it,’” Diaz said. “(A wedding dress) is one of those things that just sits around. There’s not any purpose to it so I thought it could be put to use.”

Diaz previously had a child who was in the NICU and had to have open heart surgery. Her son survived, but she said she saw the suffering and grief that parents go through when they lose a baby. She donated her dress Feb. 24 and decided to spread the word so other women could donate their dresses to the cause.

“Most of us have a dress sitting around,” Diaz said. “But it’s something to make people think. I want Melody to be able to have lots of dresses and be able to give this opportunity to lots of people. … This is something that (Melody) is totally doing out of the goodness of her heart.”

Since starting the business, Penrod said she was approached by the family of a terminally ill girl in Fountain Green who recently made headlines. The family asked Penrod to preemptively make a burial dress for their 6-year-old daughter, Addie Fausett.

Penrod also makes halos and lace angel wings to go along with the burial clothing.

“This really presents a beautiful picture,” she said. “That’s my motto. Every angel baby deserves to have a pretty dress to go back to heaven. That’s what motivates me.”

Penrod is still seeking donated wedding dresses and sewing volunteers. Anyone interested can contact her at melody.penrod@gmail.com.

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