It wasn’t long after I talked with Colleen about her wedding plans for the first time that I heard about the dress she was making. No she wasn’t just making a dress to wear before or after the wedding, she decided to make her own wedding dress. I was of course impressed and interested to see what she created. She described her wedding in Pennsylvania farm country at Tristan’s family home as relaxed, unique, and personal. It seemed fitting that she would create her dress as well and I watched with anticipation as she posted her progress on facebook. The dress was definitely unique and not only fit in with the wedding but Colleen’s personality and style… that’s what you get when you make it yourself! I had to know more of the story behind this project since this is an ambitious project to take on, so I asked Colleen a few questions and this is what she said:
What inspired you to make your own wedding dress?
I love the show “Say Yes To the Dress.” I don’t think I’m alone in saying that many bride-to-be’s love watching it. It’s so fun to see all different styles and the incredible detail on the dresses so I got a lot of inspiration from there. On the other side, I can be a pretty thrifty shopper and it wasn’t in my budget to spend hundreds on a dress. After talking with my mom and Tristan’s mom, (who both made their own dresses) I felt like I could take on the challenge myself… and if I needed any help I had a good support team.
So did you go into this with a lot of experience?
I did some sewing growing up, so I was always familiar with the machine and all of the basics, but it was pretty casual. The past few years I really started getting into sewing again, probably from my love of Project Runway. I think my wedding dress was my fourth or fifth dress.
One thing that was really unique on your dress was the crocheted flowers + birds. What was your inspiration and how long did that take to create those?
Last June, Rene’e taught me how to crochet. I had a dream of making a big Granny Square afghan (which is still a work in progress). From there she helped me read patterns and it took off from there. I picked up a couple books with different flower patterns to give me some variety. I took about three months to do all the flowers – yes that sounds like a long time – but they were just little side projects to do here and there. I think the main reason why I wanted to add them on was to make a dress that completely unique; to add a personal touch that would make the dress mine.
What was the best thing about making your own dress and what were some of the challenges?
One of the challenges was getting a perfect fit, since I wasn’t sure how tight or loose I would want it for the wedding day. Since I was doing all of the alternations, it made it harder to make last minute adjustments when I was busy with everything else. That was trumped by having a dress that was completely unique and personal. My first real “fitting” was a month before the wedding when I put it on and my Mom was holding it together in the back to see how much room we had to put in the zipper. I had been working on it for a month already not really knowing what it would look like on… and then I saw it- I got goosebumps! This was *my* dress. That was the best feeling.
thanks for sharing Colleen! check back later today for the full post on their wedding 
by Mary Dougherty
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