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Something Old, Something New
LOCAL SEAMSTRESS WEAVES MAGIC INTO UNIQUE, AFFORDABLE WEDDING GOWNS
Demirzah both alters dresses and creates gowns from
scratch. “Someone will bring in a classic dress and want
to change it, or they’ll have a picture and ask me to re-
create what they see,” she says, adding that it takes at least
a month for a dress to be altered or made, with such work
priced anywhere between $30 and $400.
Thanks to seamstresses like Demirzah, brides seeking
something classy and artistic don’t need to shop off the
rack for expensive designer dresses. A reasonably priced
dress can be made from a photograph, and unique gowns
can be found online and tailored to personal specifi cations.
Outdated family heirlooms can even be modernized.
Demirzah says she loves making dresses with personal,
creative fl air. “I actually made my own wedding dress
based on a design from an Erté paper doll book, and it
turned out beautifully,” she says. “It was cut on the bias (at
a 45-degree angle to the threads), and it had a little shawl
piece with tassels. It was so rewarding to make.”
Demirzah’s workspace is in the second-fl oor loft of Deluxe,
where she keeps a wedding dress she made for a fashion
show. It is a short, lacy number cut from velour curtain fabric.
“I made this one by just draping the fabric on the model in
different ways,” she says. “Sometimes you discover the best
designs by getting a little messy and making mistakes.”
For creative brides like Bethany Coleman, custom-
made and altered dresses can be a perfect fi t. “It’s so great
to see people’s reactions to what they’ve helped create,”
Demirzah says. “There are so many ways to make a dress,
or to transform something old into something new.” ew
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ugene resident Bethany Coleman married her
husband, Luke, in spring of 2010. The couple didn’t
have a lot of money to spend on the wedding, but
they wanted something authentic, pretty and vintage.
In preparing for the ceremony, Coleman steeped her
custom-fi tted dress in a bathtub full of black tea.
Coleman envisioned a 1950s aesthetic and, given her
budget, she perused the internet for affordable vintage
gowns. “The one that I fi nally ordered was covered in this
weird netting and sequins,” Coleman says. “I had to cut a
lot of stuff off of it.”
In order to transform a vintage internet fi nd into her
dream dress, Coleman contacted Deborah Demirzah, a
seamstress working for local fashion boutique Deluxe. It
was Demirzah who recommended that Coleman soak her
dress in tea. “She was brilliant,” Coleman says of Demirzah.
“She turned my vision into something real — even the
color.” Demirzah gave Coleman’s dress a modern fi t and
suggested she use tea to achieve the desired off-white tone.
Coleman was married in a park, and the dress she created
with Demirzah perfectly matched the spring sunlight
shining on wildfl owers in mason jars. “I feel fortunate and
blessed that I could pull that dress off for under $200, and
I’m really grateful to Deborah,” Coleman says.
Demirzah has been sewing since she was eight. Over
the years, she says, she’s created about 10 wedding dresses.
“They’re fun to make,” she says. “I just love that people
have these amazing ideas, and that I get to be a part of their
creative process.”
by Caitlin McKimmy
A DEBORAH DEMIRZAH DRESS MADE OF RECYCLED MATERIALS
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