The air in Teresa Carter's basement in Highland's Ranch is still.
It has four women in it, but the only sound is the soft, methodical churning of their sewing machines.
One is ripping apart a wedding gown someone donated to Carter a few weeks ago.
"We're all kind of new at this," said Kathy Reiger as her hands guided a section of the dress through the sewing machine's foot.
By the look in Reiger's eyes, you can tell this is more than just sewing; it's work that connects deeply to her soul.
"We're making gowns, and little vests and dresses for babies that unfortunately did not live," she said.
The dress in Reiger's hands will be cut down, trimmed, and then sewn into a smaller gown only a portion of the size.
It will have a pink or blue bow attached onto it as well, before it is hand-delivered to a local hospital.
From there a nurse will give it to a grieving family.
"You know, [I think] wow this is going to go on a little baby and this is going to tell parents that other people are thinking about them," said Teresa Carter, who is working on stitching a bow tie together.
Teresa started converting wedding gowns into burial gowns in September. She saw a need that wasn't being filled and put a message out to the Highlands Ranch community via Facebook, asking anyone interested to donate and lend a hand.
"I finally feel like I've found my calling," Carter said "What was meant for me to do."
"It's not something you would ever think [of doing]," Hilary Perry added.
Perry joined the group as a way to marry her interests of sewing and volunteerism.
Kathy Rieger because she understands the pain these families go through.
"I'm a retired labor and delivery nurse," she said. "I worked as a labor and delivery nurse for 30 years and so I worked with the parents when they were going through these difficult situations. When [Teresa] put out a message that she was looking for volunteers it just hit close to my heart, so it's very, very therapeutic for me."
The women never see where their gowns go. They deliver them to hospitals that then give them to families.
But to this group that doesn't matter. Love is inherently woven into what they do.
"[The families] feel the love of what was hand-created for their baby," Carter said. "They feel it in that."
