Design a Wedding Dress in 4 Weeks

•

B R I D E S M A G A Z I N E C O M P E T I T I O N

Hand Sew a Wedding Dress in 4 Weeks

I entered a national competition for Brides Magazine to design "America's Most Beautiful Wedding Gown." I submitted three watercolor sketches of a bridal gown inspired by the lake I was living near at the time in Annecy, France. Shortly after I submitted my sketches, along with 500 other applicants, I was notified that my sketches were selected into the semi finals. I had four weeks to sew the dress.

Not only was I given about four weeks to create a bridal gown, I was also recovering from a recent and very intensive eye surgery. I was spending my time in France working at a ski and snowboard company while regaining my sight. I hand stitched the entire dress.

It took about 300 hours to hand sew this dress. I used about 11 yards of chiffon, silk and organza. The bulk of my time spent sewing this dress was in the middle of the night after I had gotten off work. I also didn't have a large enough mirror so I waited until the sun set so I could use my reflection in the window to see how the dress was draping on my body. I stitched the dress around my body because I also didn't have a body form to work from. The bodice, neckline and veil are entirely hand beaded.

The final product, after over 300 hours of intensive hand beading and sewing in 4 short weeks while regaining my eye sight was a wedding gown that I considered to be a visionary and romantic dress. The draping and fabric reflected the inspiration I found in the ripples and reflections of the water in Lake Annecy. The dress is cut entirely on the bias with a burst of crystal and glass beads that emerge from the waist. It is ruched on one side with layers of light gray chiffon peak through. The draped, cream-colored silk sits on top billowing to one side.

My dress was featured in a fashion show in New York City, presented on Good Morning America and featured in the Nov.-Dec. 09 issue of Brides Magazine. As a result of my journey undergoing eye surgery at 20, living in a remote village by myself for 6 months recovering, working and spending 300 hours hand sewing a dress, I was fortunate enough to share my story with thousands of attendees at the 2010 TEDxCincy conference the following year.