In the days leading up to his wife Claire’s death, Andrew Kent sat with her and discussed fabric leaves. She wanted them in various shades—greens, browns, and golds, the colors she admired on walks.
After she died, each of their three children took one leaf home. The remaining leaves were stitched onto a wool cover that Andrew designed for his wife’s funeral shroud, a soft wrap she chose instead of a coffin.
“The shroud cover removed the anonymity of a traditional coffin,” Kent explained. “During the funeral, we focused on designs that reminded us of her life, not a cold, anonymous box.”
Launch of DIY Shroud Cover Kits
This weekend at the Bovey Tracey craft festival, Bellacouche, a Devon company with over two decades of experience making bespoke woollen funeral shrouds and covers, will launch mail-order kits. These kits enable people to create their own personalized shroud covers.
“It challenges many taboos, but I believe it’s more beneficial if people make the covers themselves,” said Yuli Sømme, founder of Bellacouche. “You gain more wellbeing and engage in meaningful conversations with others while working on it.”
The launch follows increasing interest in alternatives to traditional funerals. Green burials are gaining popularity, and unconventional memorials like ash reefs have attracted attention in recent years.
Kit Contents and Pricing
The £155 heirloom cover kit includes a felt cover in one of three sizes, a needle-felting tool, needles, wool, and access to online tutorials. Users can add dyed wool fibers and naturally dyed felt to create custom designs.
After the launch, Sømme will hand over her business to four local people, including two former customers, who aim to expand its reach. Ideas include shroud covers for pets and workshops in schools, hospices, and care homes.
Personal Stories and Growing Demand
Ysanne Friend, a potential buyer, is designing a shroud cover for herself. “I don’t expect to die soon, but after experiencing three deaths and three births in the last decade, I find it healthy and comforting to contemplate my relationship with death now, rather than when it’s sudden,” she said.
Sømme decided to sell her business after 22 years due to overwhelming demand. “I receive inquiries about personalized shroud covers daily and commissions at least once a week,” she noted. The popularity of her workshops also convinced her that a home-completion version was needed.
Over the years, Sømme has created shroud covers featuring helicopters, banjos, gardening tools, sheepdogs, crows, and several Spitfire aircraft. “They’re incredibly popular for some reason,” she remarked.
Her interest in shrouds began after her father died when she was five. “I used to find comfort wrapping myself in his cardigan,” she recalled. She later developed a technique for making woollen shrouds and started receiving commissions after exhibiting them as artworks.
A Display of Love
One commission came from Christel Goodwin. After her husband Brian died, students, friends, and family contributed designs to his shroud cover. There were so many that some had to be placed inside the shroud; one friend recreated the moon exactly as it appeared on the night Brian died.
“It was a beautiful display of love,” Goodwin said. “Creating the designs sparked many stories about Brian. It was an act of love expressed in beauty.”
Challenges to Personalization
Rupert Callender of the Green Funeral Company noted that interest in personalized funerals has steadily increased over his 26 years in the industry but now faces an “existential threat.”
“I’ve never been busier, but we’re fighting against the reality of a massive financial squeeze. The prices offered by venture capitalists for processes like direct cremation seem irresistible,” he said. “That’s the existential threat to personalization of funerals.”
