Grimbarians - Single

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Wendy Freeman

Angel Gowns is a UK based volunteer group who make funeral garments for pregnancy loss and stillborn babies, often out of recycled weddings dresses and delivered across the country by Volunteer Riders UK. Recently Angel Gowns have also been nominated for the NELC civic awards for charity of the year.

Estimates from http://tommys.org suggest that there are 250,000 miscarriages every year in the United Kingdom, as well as thousands of children who pass away. The Angel Gowns service provides families, who have suffered unbelievable tragedy, with some level of care, comfort and preparation around baby funerals. Helping those families with the bereavement process and moving forward. Some of the items that Angel Gowns create include baby funeral gowns, cocoons, bonnets, fabric hearts and others. "We started at 3 people making gowns for stillborn babies, we are now a global group. Some of the celebrants we collaborate with offer free funeral services up to 18 years of age."


Wendy grew up in Holton Le Clay and attended Tollbar school, living in the area ever since. Before Angel Gowns, Wendy was used to volunteering with projects like knitting for the homeless and making clear-lip-reading masks over the pandemic with friend Louise Drakes. Louise, from Keelby, is partially-deaf so during the pandemic found difficulty communicating with people using the regular facemasks. Upcycling materials to create reusable masks and scrubs, the project was also a success thanks to Volunteer Riders UK who, during the lockdown, helped deliver 1,000 kits and around 17,000 masks across the country!


The Volunteer Riders UK group has been fundamental to the Angel Gowns project: "We have a network of knitters, sewers and volunteer drivers across the country run by my friend Louise. Volunteer riders UK move the dresses around and take Angel gowns to hospitals celebrants funeral directors and hospices."

"We now try and use the volunteer riders UK because posting is so expensive. We had an emergency request before Christmas. We needed to transport gowns a cradle and bonnets to a hospital 60 miles away for a funeral on the Monday it was a Saturday about 2am the request was made. Some of the items were made that morning boxed up. The call went out for a motor bike or car to pick up. The first bike was diverted to deliver blood for blood bikers UK. The second volunteer saw the call and picked up the box within half hr and delivered the items that night. The funeral happens on the Monday morning. We also run groups in other country's to keep dresses in those country's to cut air miles."


It was during the pandemic that Wendy donated one of her dresses to a similar group and decided it was time to start her own. With this move two of Wendy's friends, including Louise, joined her in this new group. The process of making Angel Gowns begins with donated material, ready for upcycling, being washed and dismantled so patterns can be cut from the material and sewn back into smaller, lined gowns. The designs are custom made with inspiration and advice from 7 Pine Design Studio. "Our sewers work with midwives to design items. A big problem in hospitals is storage and some maternity wards don't have cold cots or dedicated bereavement areas."


"We have a room in Welholme works where we construct items. I also do at home. We also pack bags of items which the VRUK transport for us. We have a Facebook page. Instagram and people contact us through these mediums, we get 100s of inbox messages daily on Facebook. We get donators and requesters to email our admin Louise who runs the emergency service through her phone. We also have a sewers group page and group chat. We have hospitals celebrants and funeral homes contact us now but before we were ringing and emailing hospitals a lot."


The future of Angel Gowns is looking to expand and convert into a charity, everyone involved is a volunteer and funds the project themselves and so are always on the look out for help in any way it can be given. "We have an amazon wish list online and a lot of people donate threads, fabric and sewing machines. Some of our machines need servicing and some repairing but we have no funds to do this. We need a printer to print letters information cards and items for volunteers. We need bags to individually pack items and items for packing suitable for motorbike top boxes and panniers scissors."


Donations and volunteering offers are welcome to Welholme Works down Ladysmith Road or contacting Wendy or Louise directly on the Facebook Angel Gowns page.


Words by Connor Stannard

Photography by Dan Clarke

Portrait proudly sponsored by...

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