How to Choose a Natural Burial Shroud

This is part eight of our 12-week series on natural burial. New here? Start with our Intro to Green Burial, or read last week's post on talking to your family about green burial.

The choice of a natural burial shroud is a choice for simplicity, dignity, and environmental consciousness. We were wrapped in cloth when we were born, and we can choose to again be wrapped in cloth when we go to our final rest.

If a burial shroud feels like the right option for you or a loved one, choosing one can seem straightforward. However, there are real differences among the shrouds on the market, and most of them stay invisible until you know what to look for.

A burial shroud is just one of several natural burial container options. You might instead choose a simple untreated wooden casket, a cardboard casket, or a woven wicker or willow coffin, and our planning guide walks through how those compare. If a shroud is the direction you're leaning, though, the rest of this guide goes deep on exactly that choice.

What to look for in a shroud

For a natural burial shroud, there are physical factors that matter:

• ✓The fibre content of the cloth, the trims, and even the sewing thread, so the shroud will decompose quickly and add valuable nutrients to the soil.
• ✓The functionality and the skill of the makers, a strong weave, sturdy stitching, and careful placement of the ties and detailing. It is often surprising how heavy a body is.
• ✓The construction of the shroud, ensuring strength and containment for ease of transporting and burial.

 

There are also less tangible elements worth considering:

• ✓The sustainability of the shroud. Are the natural fibres traceable, and is it made by makers who are visible and stand behind their work?
• ✓The beauty and tones of the woven cloth. Every natural fibre and naturally-dyed yarn has its own qualities and aesthetic appeal.
• ✓The overall look of the shroud, and how it will fulfill your needs and wishes

 

What a shroud needs to do

Webbed cotton handles on our Snowy Owl Burial Shroud

Before you compare fibres and weave patterns, it helps to be clear about what a shroud is actually for. A burial shroud has to do three things well:

1. securely wrap and hold a body with dignity,
2. be strong enough to be lifted, carried a short or long distance by several people, and lowered safely into the ground, and
3. return to the earth cleanly, leaving nothing behind, only adding nutrients to the soil.

A shroud that does all three of these jobs is compatible with green burial principles. Hold onto that first one, dignity, because it's the thread that runs through everything that follows.

A focus on fibres

The first question is what kind of yarn is used in weaving the cloth, because a burial shroud should be contributing back to the earth. The natural yarns we use in our shrouds at LaHave Weaving Studio are linen, cotton, wool, alpaca, hemp, or silk, never yarn made from synthetic materials. Each natural fibre carries its own characteristics, and people have very specific reasons for why they like the look, feel, or meaning behind a particular fibre, whether that's linen's ancient history, wool's warmth, or cotton's familiarity.

Whatever the fibre you choose for your natural burial shroud, avoid synthetics entirely. Polyester, acrylic, nylon, rayon, and all synthetic blends are not in keeping with green burial principles, won't fully break down, and can leave a fine mesh behind in the soil long after the rest of the shroud is gone. Beware fabrics marketed as “natural-look” or “linen-like” too, that usually just means synthetic. We go deeper into each natural fibre, where ours are sourced, and what makes one right for a particular person, in an upcoming post in this series.

“Biodegradable” means the whole shroud, not just the cloth

Tie details on our Osprey Burial Shroud

A shroud can be woven from pure linen and still fail the only test that matters, because biodegradability is about the whole object, not just the fabric. Most people miss this, and it's the single most important point in this guide. The thread holding the shroud together, the ties that secure it, any handles or reinforcement, any dyes, the finishing treatments, and what the deceased is wearing, all of it goes into the ground with the body. If the cloth is natural linen but the thread is polyester, the linen softens and returns to the earth, but the thread does not. A fine mesh of plastic stitching stays behind in the soil, tracing the outline of a shroud that is otherwise long gone.

So, look past the headline material. The thread, the dyes, and any wrinkle-resistant or flame-retardant finishes can all undo a shroud that looks natural on the surface, and those treatments are exactly what you don't want leaching into soil. The simplest rule: every part of the shroud, and what the deceased is wearing, should be something that was once a plant or an animal, and nothing else. A truly natural shroud is natural all the way down.

Strength isn't negotiable

An untreated wood plank, inserted in the built-in canvas sleeve in our Sandpiper Shroud

A shroud isn't only a cloth to wrap the body in; when carrying the deceased to the grave site, a strong construction is required. Avoid fabric that's too lightweight or handles that are poorly attached, because both can tear at the worst possible moment. Look for cloth with genuine weight to it, and handles or carrying straps built into the structure of the shroud rather than stitched on as an afterthought.

Lowering the shroud is its own small piece of planning. The body needs to rest on something rigid, a board or a tray, so it can be lowered evenly, and some shrouds, including ours, use an untreated wooden plank slid into a built-in sleeve that goes into the ground too. Often rope or belts are used in three places to help lower the body into the grave; if belts are desired, a funeral home can help with those. Natural burial graves are generally dug 3 to 4 feet deep, not as deep as conventional graves. This shallower depth means the body can decompose more quickly through natural interaction with bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.

If you make your own shroud, do not use knitted fabric, knits aren't strong and stable, whereas woven cloth is stable, strong, and resistant to tearing. If you want to incorporate a favourite cotton quilt as part of your burial shroud, consider making a durable base with the quilt as a treasured embellishment, rather than depending on just the strength of a well-worn quilt or blanket.

Rules vary from place to place, so ask your cemetery what they require. Our green burial FAQ covers the common ones, and a death doula can help you think it all through well before the day.

Dressing and wrapping with care

The act of preparing a loved one for burial is a quiet, tender part of a natural burial; it is an intimate ritual that gives dignity and grace to these final hours. Our hands have cuddled babies, cared for the sick, folded, served, stroked, tied, shaped, stitched, and so much more. For many families, washing or simply dressing and wrapping a loved one with their own hands becomes one of the most meaningful parts of saying goodbye.

Many families choose to dress their person in something simple and made of natural fibres before wrapping them in the shroud. If needed, our Fair Winds chemise is made for exactly this, a wrap-around garment of soft, unbleached cotton that fastens with simple ties and suits a range of body shapes.

Handcrafted versus commercially-manufactured burial shrouds

Once you know a shroud is fully natural and well-built, the last thing that shapes your choice is how it was made, and this is where shrouds can differ most. A commercially-manufactured shroud is produced at scale, often overseas, by looms turning out thousands of yards of cloth. Made this way, a shroud can still be perfectly acceptable for a natural burial.

A handcrafted shroud is something else entirely. Its cloth is made thoughtfully, by a person whose hands interact with the yarn directly, one in a long line of weavers who have worked at the loom for hundreds of years. The weave is usually denser, and the cloth carries more weight and character. You can feel the difference; there's a texture and substance to handmade fabric that industrial looms can't quite reproduce. At the graveside, looking at a shroud woven with care and attention in the sewing and the detailing, that difference is felt. The deeper difference, though, is intention, and the weight of the generations of weavers behind it, of making something special. It honours the deceased. It is a dignified return to the earth, a final embrace wrapped in soft cloth.

Here's how the two compare at a glance:

	Commercially-manufactured	Handcrafted
How it's made	Machine-made at scale, often overseas	Woven either by hand or cottage industry, sewn one shroud at a time
Knowing what's inside	Harder to trace the labour, yarn, dyes, and finishes	Fibre content, yarns spun, weaver, seamstresses all traceable
Footprint	Often shipped long distances	Lighter when woven locally
Feel and weight	Uniform and machine-consistent	Denser, unique designs, with more weight and texture
Made to order	Identical, with limited options	Size and natural dyes can be tailored
Cost	Generally lower	Higher, reflecting the materials and the hours of work

Neither choice is wrong. A family on a tight budget choosing a simple manufactured cotton shroud has made a fine, loving decision. But for many families, the knowledge that the cloth was woven by hand, with care, for exactly this moment, is its own quiet comfort. That's a question only you can answer, and it's worth considering before you buy.

A few questions worth asking

A few plain questions will tell you most of what you need to know about any shroud:

• • ☐What's the cloth, the trims, and the thread all made of?
  • ☐Are the dyes and any finishes natural?
  • ☐How is it meant to be carried and lowered, and will it meet my cemetery's rules?
  • ☐Was it handcrafted or commercially-manufactured, and where?

 

Anyone who makes shrouds with care will welcome these questions and answer them gladly. At LaHave Weaving Studio, we've spent more than fifty years learning to weave cloth that meets every one of these tests. Every shroud is woven by hand here in Nova Scotia, proudly made in Canada, from natural, biodegradable fibres chosen with care. We weave with great care because a dignified return to the earth begins with the cloth that carries you there. When the time comes to choose a shroud, you'll find us at the loom, and we'd be honoured to show you our work.

Up next: The Art of Weaving a Burial Shroud 

New to the series? Start with What Is Green Burial?

Sources 

1. Biodegradable materials and certification standards for green burial products: Green Burial Council
2. Shroud fibres, the whole-system biodegradability principle, and cemetery rules: Funeral.com, “Burial Shrouds Explained” and “Green Burial Shrouds: Materials, Costs & How to Wrap a Body”
3. Fibre options and avoiding synthetics: Carolina Memorial Sanctuary, “Biodegradable Burial Containers for Green Burial”; Natural Burial Grounds (UK), “The History of Shrouds”
4. LaHave Weaving Studio shroud construction: our own post, What Is a Natural Burial Shroud?
5. “The Beauty and Benefits of Shrouded Burials” by Dwayne Till