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Can anybody spare a wedding dress?

The wedding dress that you no longer need could get a new life as a deconstructed and reconstructed new designer garment. All you have to do is donate it to the Iowa 4-H Foundation for the Stitch This! fashion design competition at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 21-22.

We got the idea for Stitch This! as a way to use the nine wedding dresses that didn’t sell at last year’s 4-H auction. We’d get nine teen teams -- one per dress. Then, over the course of two days at the Iowa State Fair, each team would take the dress apart and use their creativity to design and construct a wearable garment from the pieces. Each team would be paired with an Iowa State University Textiles and Clothing student who would provide direction and overall expertise on patternmaking and construction.

Well, we have been overwhelmed by the response. We have applications from 50 individuals for a total of 14 teams. (You can view video applications from some of the teams on the Iowa 4-H YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/iowa4h.) They’re all hoping to be selected for the competition. If we just had a few more wedding dresses …

So – if you know of a wedding dress that needs a new life, please contact me at shellyg@iastate.edu or (515) 294-1607 by June 15th. Thanks so much!

-- Shelly Greving, marketing coordinator for the Iowa 4-H Foundation

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