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OXFORDS to HEIRLOOMS A niche Raleigh business turns worn button-down shirts into timeless children’s wares by SIMMONS ANDREWS photography S.P. MURRAY
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bout 10 years ago, Jessica Johnson Moore had a stack of her husband’s old dress shirts to take to the thrift shop. They no longer fit, but they were in great shape. The fabrics were beautiful — plus, they smelled like him and held lovely memories. From the pile of discarded shirts 36 | WALTER
came an idea: Johnson Moore would turn the shirts into dresses for their then 2-year-old daughter, Adeline Grey. A trained architect and former professor at North Carolina State University, Johnson Moore had some sewing know-how from past projects. And with her design mentality, she soon started creating her own patterns.
She transformed her husband’s beloved shirts into sweet dresses for Adeline — cuffs made into buttondetail sleeves, the yoke sized down for a much smaller back, extra fabric made into ruffled collars and oversize bows. Friends and family loved them so much she started taking orders, too, and within two years, she had enough for
