CHARLOTTE, NC — While wedding dresses are designed to celebrate one of life’s biggest joys, at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte they are repurposed to help families cope with one of life’s greatest sorrows. The hospital’s Angel Gown Program accepts donated wedding gowns and repurposes them into garments for NICU babies who don’t survive their stay. The service gives grieving families a moment to cherish a memory that will never fade.
Tess Soholt lost her own baby at just 18 weeks gestation during her first delivery as a labor and delivery nurse. It was a tragedy that weighed heavily on her heartstrings and ultimately inspired her to create something beautiful from it. Now, Soholt spends the majority of her retirement years sewing tiny handmade angel gowns and donating them across the country to give families a memory they will never forget.
The nonprofit organization Touching Little Lives distributes the angel gowns to hospitals in central Ohio. Its infant loss coordinator Katrina Durst says the gowns are not only comforting to parents but also help nurses understand the depth of the loss. She says it can be very difficult for them to explain the reason they are not taking the baby home, especially when it’s an early death.
Soholt’s gowns are made from the back of a wedding dress and she can often get up to 18 different unique tiny angel gowns and wraps out of one. She has also created a pattern for overalls and sleep sacks to be used with the tiniest babies, many who will be born under a pound or two. She adds a piece of fabric to the front where families can have their baby’s hand or foot print added as a keepsake.
For those who are looking to donate a wedding dress or a part of one, Soholt recommends getting in touch with a group like hers or the local chapter of the National Angel Gown Alliance, which has locations all over the country. She also asks for donations of sewing supplies such as ribbon, lace, pinking shears, bobby pins, fabric scissors, sewing thread and even men’s ties to be used as bow ties on the tiny angel gowns and wraps.
She says the women who sew the angel gowns find the process very therapeutic, and she hopes that by giving others the opportunity to be involved, they can also receive healing themselves.
Soholt’s workshop is located in the upstairs of her home and she works with a handful of volunteers to sew the garments. She has a lot of faith in the power of her work and believes that people will continue to show up for their neighbor, whether it’s helping a friend move or sewing an angel gown. She feels that when you see how much the community cares for each other, it gives hope and strength. “I think the world is a much better place when we help each other,” she said.