Stitched MemoryForty years of uniforms,
stitched into one keepsake.
A handcrafted keepsake bear or pup made from a retiree's work clothes — uniform shirts, scrubs, a lab coat, the coveralls from a career at the shop. A retirement gift that honors the years more than a pen and a cake.
Years of work, turned into something they keep in the home.
Careers end in fluorescent break rooms and sheet cakes and obligatory watches. A keepsake made from a retiree's own uniform shirt — with the name patch intact — is a different kind of retirement gift. It puts four decades of work on a shelf in the living room, in a form they can hand down to a grandchild.
What to send for a retirement keepsake
One garment is enough for a single keepsake. Sending two or more pieces Katie can combine is a small +$20 upgrade — because piecing the story together by hand takes noticeably longer at the machine.
A uniform shirt with the name patch
Cotton or cotton-blend uniform shirts are ideal. The name patch, logo, and union number can be preserved as features on the keepsake.
Scrubs or a lab coat
Cotton scrubs and medical coats piece beautifully. A lab coat with an embroidered name is among our most-frequently-commissioned retirement keepsakes.
Work pants or coveralls
Heavier work fabric is possible; send Katie a photo and she will tell you honestly what will work. A coverall patch or pocket often becomes a detail feature.
Commemorative or unit shirts
The company picnic shirts from thirty years. Department outing tees. Commemorative 25-year-service shirts. Cotton commemorative shirts carry an enormous amount of identity.
Every shape. Same hand-stitched care.
Each one is made the same way — what changes is the silhouette.
From a stack of clothing to something they'll keep
Current turnaround is nine to twelve weeks from the day your clothing arrives at Katie's studio, plus shipping.
Send the clothes
Pick the garments that carry the story, pack them up, and mail them to Katie's Georgia studio with any carrier you like.
Katie stitches it by hand
Each keepsake is cut and sewn one at a time. Pockets, logos, buttons, patches — every detail that made the garment theirs is placed with intention.
Theirs to keep
The finished keepsake arrives ready to present — hand-cut and hand-sewn from the uniform shirt you sent, with the name patch, logo, and worn details preserved as features. Four decades of work kept in the seams. One of a kind, theirs to keep on a shelf and hand down to a grandchild.