Nancy Batchelder wore this dress when she married David Fryxell on May 1, 1982. It was made from her father's World War II silk parachute. Walter Batchelder was hospitalized and unable to attend his daughter’s wedding, so Nancy made the dress as a tribute to him and as a way of having her father represented on her big day.

Nancy sewed the dress by hand, basing the design on the panels of the parachute that survived in good condition. She learned to sew from her father’s mother, Lydia Batchelder, who inspired Nancy to use the parachute silk for her wedding dress.