Making your own shroud and/or coffin
Funeral homes don’t want you to know this, but you can make your own shroud and coffin for when you die.
You have more options than the coffin catalogue funeral homes show you. Which are often more expensive than people anticipate and don’t always suit the wishes of the person who has died.
You don’t even have to use a coffin. You can have a shroud and a shroud bearer.
This is something not many people know about, because it’s not talked about, or spoken about when it is time to make funeral arrangements.
You will need to make sure the coffin or shroud meets legal requirements, and the requirements of the crematory or burial site. But it can be done.
So why would you consider making our own coffin or shroud?
⚰️ It can help reduce funeral costs
⚰️ It allows personal customisation of your vessel
⚰️ It can help foster a healthy acceptance of mortality (some people even use their coffins as furniture as a daily reminder of ‘memento mori)
⚰️ It can be something you can do with friends and family to infuse more meaning into your farewell and to create a shared ritual around death
⚰️ You can choose the materials in which you are buried or cremated in
⚰️ It can help empower you in your choices and decision making when it comes to death and dying
⚰️ You can get as creative as you want with it, and add your own flair
It might sound daunting about where to start making your own coffin or shroud, but don’t fret.
There are many sites online that can tell you the dimensions of a coffin (here), or tutorial videos on Youtube (watch a tutorial here).
It’s important to remember that this coffin is your vessel to be buried or cremated in. You could look at it as a part of you, and a part of your final expression of yourself before you reach your final resting place. This means you can get as creative as you want. Think about painting, adding photographs, playing with the shape of the coffin, getting friends and family to write messages on it. You might want to eco-print your shroud and dye it using natural dyes (think fruits and vegetables), or you could embroider into your shroud and maybe even have words from a poem that’s meaningful to you stitched into it.
There is no right or wrong way to make your own coffin or shroud - as long as the legal requirements and the requirements of the burial site or crematory are considered.
