The holiday season is a popular time to get engaged. And for many, a big part of a wedding is the dress. A Vermont designer is making a name for herself. making custom gowns, using organic fabrics. Tara Lynn Scheidet of Tara Lynn Bridal came to show and tell us more about her gowns. Watch the videos for more.
Posted: Jan 25, 2013 7:56 PM EST

ROBIN CAUDELL Press-Republican

Tara Lynn Scheidet is in a beautiful place geographically and business-wise.

The Sutton, Vt., eco-friendly wedding-apparel designer of Tara Lynn Bridal marks 2013 without juggling two or three part-time jobs.

“My business expanded last year,” said the Long Island native and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate.

“I’m really excited about this year.”

Things are usually dead this deep in winter, but she has 11 orders and is in the process of hiring an apprentice. She attributes the influx to her new website: www.taralynnbridal.com.

But accidental press and word-of-mouth of her sustainable wedding dresses made from natural, organic and repurposed fabrics fuels the demand for her one-of-a-kind gowns that are made by hand and with vintage sewing machines.

VIRTUAL FITTINGS

“I’m in the Northeast Kingdom, the middle of nowhere. People come from Colorado for fittings. Last year, people came from Canada, Pennsylvania, Chicago and New York,” she said.

One Michigan bride-to-be will visit twice this year. This Wednesday evening, Scheidet has a virtual fitting with a client in Lincoln, Neb., to whom she mailed the dress.

“She sends digital images. On the new website, the clients have a private portal to see gallery images of (their) dress-in-progress. We can communicate back and forth. The client portal keeps all measurements right there in your own personal gallery that you can share with friends and family or keep it a surprise.”

WORKING WITH PRINTS

She offers a Custom Collection (all about you), Tara Lynn Collection (eclectic and ethereal), Vintage College (1950s classic DNA) and Goddess Collection (bohemian/hippie/gothic).

“I’m working on three new gowns that involve prints. I did a custom gown for one girl. She called and wanted ferns and poppies, and her budget was ‘X’ amount of money,” Scheidet said.

She printed ferns on layers of organza silk.

“When the dress moved, it was really pretty. I’m working on this collection, block prints of flowers. I’m kind of inspired by lichen, and I’m doing embroidery on top of that,” she said.

MADE OWN CLOTHES

She first came to Vermont in the seventh grade to attend an event with a friend’s family.

“I wanted to live here,” she said.

As a child, she made doll clothes and furniture for two large doll houses.

“My grandmother and grandpa were upholsterers. It’s not like I ever watched them do it. My grandmom just passed away last week. Everyone is so glad I’m sewing. They said if grandpa could see what I was doing, he would be so happy.”

She taught herself how to sew and made her own clothes in junior high.

“Weird clothes, I used to get made fun of all the time,” she said. “I looked at Harper’s Bazaar. They do the runway-shot page with runway shots all collaged together.”

Her hair and makeup was influenced by the fashion magazine. She ripped apart her mother’s ’70s duds to transform bell bottoms into dresses and overalls into skirts.

FINDING RIGHT FIT

Though she thought about studying fashion in California and Boston, they were not options. FIT was not only the best, but the most affordable.

“I’m so happy I went there. I love FIT. My cousin is there now, and she’s enjoying herself. She’s going for fashion merchandising.”

Scheidet majored in fashion design with specializations in tailoring and knitwear.

“Which are two complete opposites … I wanted to learn everything I possibly could. I stressed myself out. I took everything from leather design and intimate apparel. I got a certificate in women’s tailoring and knitwear.”

She got married to her mechanic/husband, Evan, right after graduation. He remained in New York, while she found a job to convince him to join her in the Green Mountain state. She discovered designing knitwear hats for Turtle Fur was not her forte. An hour in the other direction, she was hired as an associate children’s designer at Garnet Hill, a retailer of bedding and women’s and children’s clothing, in Franconia, N.H.

“I got a $10,000 raise immediately,” she said.

She and her husband lived in a little log cabin on 92 acres with no water, no utilities and no nothing. It took seven years to have electricity and indoor plumbing.

Once she was on the grid, she resumed making her Earth Bitch jackets. She’s made natural-fibers clothing since 1999.

SENDING MESSAGE

“Earth Bitch was really my philosophy; to make clothing not only sustainable but (clothing that) sent a message. You’re wearing something on your back that educates people about what is going on in environmental protection. The Butterfly jacket was sexy and beautiful. It was all extinct or endangered butterflies. People said, ‘I didn’t know butterflies were endangered.’ My purpose is to educate people about endangered species and hemp,” Scheidet said.

“This plant was grown all over the U.S. It was made illegal. Growing this plant in America again, we could save thousands of acres of trees and use it to make paper and food. It’s a crime it’s illegal to grow it in America. The minute it’s legal, I’m growing it on my property.”

She follows in the presidential footsteps of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who grew hemp as a cash crop, as did many farmers of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

“The first draft of the constitution was written on hemp paper. People went on a reefer-madness movement and made it illegal. It’s grown everywhere in the world but the U.S.,” she said.

BUILDING NICHE

During her three-year stint at Garnet Hill, she went to a trade show in Paris. The trend forecast: go green.

“Young people demand a better future, and green is the future. I’m sitting there, I said, ‘This is it, my chance to get out there.’”

She had a small collection at The Hempest in Burlington. Her Earth Bitch wearable-art jackets are dedicated to endangered species.

Scheidet met eco-model and environmentalist Summer Raynes Oakes, who told her about the World Wildlife Fashion show in San Francisco. Scheidet applied, and her jackets were accepted.

She asked Garnet Hill for a week off to fly to the show. In a week, she and a girlfriend made an Earth Bitch and a Butterfly jacket to wear.

People were feeling the jackets in Cali and wanted to know where to get them.

“I said I made them. Everyone loved them. To make a long story short, I couldn’t wait to start my line,” Scheidet said.

Garnet Hill wanted her to sign a non-compete clause. She refused and was sacked.

“It’s the best thing that could have happened,” Scheidet said. “Here I am now.”

Email Robin Caudell: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

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TO LEARN MORE

WHAT: Tara Lynn Bridal

WHERE: 935 U.S. Route 5, Sutton, VT 05867

PHONE: (802) 467-9036

WEBSITE: www.taralynnbridal.com

A Nature Inspired Wedding Blog

by NAOMI posted on OCTOBER 30, 2012

Festive and bright, this garden party styled shoot is sure to please those with a sweet tooth – bubblegum, pink balloons, ice cream cones, a pink ombre cake and lemonade! I love the tea length ‘Stella’ dress by Tara Lynn Bridal and the light-hearted outdoor celebration reminiscent of childhood summer days. Raven Ridge Farm in Berkshire, Vermont, was the perfect setting and Creative Muse Floral Design fashioned a bouquet with the perfect blend of soft pink petals. This theme would work equally well for a spring or summer bridal shower!

Photography: J. Larose Studios / Floral Designer: Creative Muse Floral Design / Cake: The Little Purple Cake Shoppe / Venue: Raven Ridge Farm / Dress: Tara Lynn  

Tara Lynn Scheidet, Tara Lynn Bridal, Sutton

Tara Lynn Scheidet’s airy Studio feels like a tree house stuffed with magpie treasures.- by Melissa Pasanea Photographed by Daria Bishop

Large smooth rocks hold down patterns. Hatboxes of beads and buttons, shells and antique lace fill cubbies. Her embroidered and appliqued gowns shimmer with autumn leaves, butterfly wings and flower petals.

Scheidet, a Long Island native and Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, moved with her husband to the Northeast Kingdom 11 years ago where they built a small, solar-powered home topped with her studio. The city-country trade –off came naturally. The more Scheidet learned about the “dark side of fashion: sweatshops, toxic chemicals, and harmful dyes,” she says, the more she wanted to work on a smaller scale with natural fibers like organic cotton and silk, linen and hemp blends. “I feel good about working with these materials,” she says,” and they feel wonderful when you wear them; they let your body breathe.”

After stints with Garnet Hill and Turtle Fur, Scheidet struck out on her own. She makes about 15 gowns annually, priced between $600 and $6,500. High profile projects have included a glittery golden dress for the Miss America pageant and a hemp and cotton shell-sprinkled wedding gown for “American Idol” singer-songwriter Crystal Bowersox.

In 2009, Scheidet was named Vermont Small Business Association Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and she has taken full advantage of grant and networking opportunities, including mentoring and hiring local college students.

Still, the magpie collects: “Sometimes I go on a walk for inspiration,” she says, “and pick a flower to bring back.”

“I feel good about working with these materials,” she says,” and they feel wonderful when you wear them; they let your body breathe.”

Photo of three wedding dresses inside Tara Lynn Bridal’s studio made of hemp, silk and cotton.

New Haven, CT – May 6, 2012 – When planning her wedding, we hope that Angelina Jolie will choose a gown that matches her values. Known around the world for her humanitarian efforts and her generous spirit, Angelina has become a symbol of goodwill in Hollywood.

The Green Bride Guide™, the nation’s leading resource for green wedding ideas, products and services, has teamed up with some of the best green designers to create several different looks for Angelina Jolie’s wedding dress. Each designer brings something unique to the table, evoking Angie’s demure style with an edge! No matter what Angelina chooses, we hope green couples everywhere will consider an eco-friendly wedding gown for their own wedding!

Environmental lawyer Kate L. Harrison launched The Green Bride Guide in 2009 after her book The Green Bride Guide: How To Plan An Earth-Friendly Wedding On Any Budget became a best-seller in the wedding category. (Sourcebooks, 2008)

Below are the sketches from one of six top green designers, Tara Lynn Bridal.

TARA LYNN BRIDAL

Tara Lynn of Tara Lynn Bridal drew detailed concept sketches of her vision! The first design boasts an edgy sky high slit that pays homage to her Oscar dress leg bomb infamy! Angelina and her family come from all over the world and embrace all cultures. This gown is a nod to their love of world travel and helping other nations in need.

The second sketch from Tara Lynn Bridal is a slinky gown with a plunging neckline and open back. Made of natural silk charmeuse, this extraordinary gown is dripping in glass jade and emerald stones from the waist down. A dramatic train pays homage to Angelina’s children with a special embroidered message trailing down to the bottom. Just like Angelina’s tattoo of the map coordinates matching where her children were born, this beautiful message is in plain view for all to see and honors the everlasting bond between mother and child on her special day!

Eco-Wedding dress concept sketch for Angelina Jolie by Tara Lynn Bridal

Eco-Wedding dress concept sketch for Angelina Jolie by Tara Lynn Bridal

This story was featured on GreenBrideGuide.com May 6, 2012 and ElephantJournal.com July 5, 2012

With wooly bear caterpillars and snow fleas stitched into her wedding gown, it was as unique as she is.

Andalyne Stapely-Tofflemire, a nature enthusiast was seeking a wedding that was in tune with the outdoors. A search on the internet brought her to the eco-fashion design studio of Tara Lynn Bridal in Sutton Vermont.

“It means so much to me that it’s not just a dress I picked off the rack, but it has lots of meaning,” said Stapely-Tofflemire. She requested a gown with images such as a sunflower, monarch butterfly, woolly bear caterpillar, and a loon to be depicted on her wedding gown.

Stapely-Tofflemire is from Ontario Canada, so she worried at first that the distance may be too far for her  to work with Tara Lynn Bridal, but it didn’t end up being a problem. An eye opening experience for Stapely-Tofflemire was when she visited the studio. She was impressed by the work she saw so much that she asked to have a shirt made for her husband to wear at the wedding as well.

The princess bodice style dress was made with eco-friendly muslin fabric that is 55 percent hemp and 45 percent cotton. Stapely’s inspiration for the dress was to represent creatures and insects from each of the four seasons.

On her wedding, on Sept. 24, “Friends exclaimed over how realistic the flowers and insects were, amazed at the amount of detail to the point of being able to accurately identify things,” said Stapely-Tofflemire. “It was cool to have three-dimensional artwork, like the fuzzy caterpillar which I fully encouraged my guests to touch and feel for themselves.”

Tara Lynn Scheidet hand designed and embroidered each of the appliqués that were to go on the dress, and she got feedback from Stapely-Tofflemire every step of the way.

Stapely-Tofflemire said, “Everyone had heard of and was so excited to see my dress, that even those who could not make it to the wedding put in orders for photos as soon as they could see them.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Tara Lynn Scheidet
Owner, Designer
802-745-8042
info@taralynnstudio.com

Custom wedding gown by Tara Lynn Bridal with personalized fall foliage appliques.

‘Be Enchanting, be stunning, be radiant, be you.’

“Every wedding is a royal wedding…” stated the Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, Church of England, when he spoke at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.
What powerful imagery this provides to brides and grooms everywhere, and what young girl hasn’t dreamed of her wedding and the beautiful dress she will wear on that special day?

Tara Lynn Scheidet knows how to put “special” into designing wedding gowns. She is an eco-fashion designer living in Sutton, and her belief is that the bride should feel as if she is part of creating the dress.

Born and raised on Long Island, Tara Lynn is an only child who liked making doll- house furniture and clothes for her Barbie dolls. She says, “I spent a lot of time by myself and was always creating things with fabric.” She knew she wanted to be a fashion designer by the time she was in junior high. “I started mak- ing my own patterns when I was in junior high and high school. The first jacket I ever made for myself was made out of my mom’s bell bottoms.

They were the really wide bell bottoms and were cream and brown plaid. I turned them into a mini skirt and took the bottom half and made them into a jacket. The jacket had a sleeve cap. I thought a sleeve was just a rectangular shape but sleeves have a curve. The jacket looked really cute but you couldn’t move your arms. I wore all my outfits to school and I used to get made fun of a lot. They were different. I did not fit the norm.”

Tara Lynn’s parents did not think being a fashion designer was a realistic career at first. But then they started talk- ing to family members and friends about careers in fash- ion design, and they realized there were many jobs avail- able in the fashion industry. Tara Lynn laughs and says, “My parents wanted me to be a lawyer. They said I was good at arguing, but I couldn’t imagine myself being in law school and all the textbooks I would have to read. I needed to be doing something with my hands.”

She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and worked during the summers. After one summer job, she decided she was going to start her own business. “I went home early that day and my mother asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I said, ‘I quit my job today. I’m going to start my own business and I’m going to start doing alterations.’ My dad helped me distribute flyers around the neigh-borhood. Word spread and I got tons of alterations.

I would pick up garments and alter entire wardrobes for different customers. I would take my pincushion and sewing basket and do a fitting of 10 pieces, take them home, finish them, and deliver them.”

Tara Lynn first came to Vermont in the 7th grade and decided someday she wanted to come back and live here. Upon graduation from college in 2001, she and her husband, Evan, moved to Sutton where they had bought property the year before. They lived in a 16’ x 16’ log cabin with no water and electricity until they built their house last year.

They married in 2001 over Memorial Day weekend. What does a fashion designer wear for her wedding gown? Tara Lynn smiles and says, “I wore a sari that I bought. It was a piece of fabric I bought when I spent a semester in college in England. I didn’t bring any bedding and I needed a sheet for the bed. I bought this sari for a sheet and that’s what I got married in. I had a beautiful loose Indian blouse that I wore, too. We came up here, just the two of us, and eloped on a little island in the river with a Justice of the Peace.” They had a more formal wedding on August 9, 2003, in their own back yard. For that occasion, Tara Lynn made her own wedding dress. It was green, had a low open back, a handkerchief hem, and she hand-embroidered butterflies all over the top of it.

Tara Lynn makes custom hemp and eco-friendly wedding gowns. Hemp is the fiber of a Cannabis plant. The fibers are strong and can be used to make many different products. At one time, they were used in making canvas for sails, ropes, and even paper. “It makes really soft beautiful fabrics and I use a lot of hemp in silk blends, cotton blends, and wool blends,” Tara Lynn says. It is illegal to grow hemp in the United States because it is related to the marijuana plant. Hemp is grown in China (the world’s leading producer) as well as in other places includ- ing Canada, France, Chile, and Germany. Tara Lynn adds that “Most of my suppliers are in California, and the hemp is manufactured  in  China and Romania, but a lot of the fabrics I use come from China. I started buying organic silks from companies in Europe this year. I deal directly with companies where I can handle their minimum orders for yards of fabric.”

Perhaps her most famous wedding dress to date has been the one she made for Crystal Bowersox, who was married on October 10, 2010, in Chicago. Crystal is well known for winning second place on American Idol in
2010. “I didn’t know who she was because I don’t have a TV and haven’t had one for 10 years. She found me online and called me. I made her wedding dress in three weeks. My usual time requirements are three to six months to make a wedding gown.”

When Tara Lynn begins working with a bride, she starts with an interview. “I e-mail a personal interview and    measurement    sheet, which on the new website you will be able to download. You will have your own personal page where we can commu- nicate and share information. It will be like a client portal.” Information will be exchanged such as the location, date, and details of the wedding. She will ask for photos and they will discuss styles, colors, wedding theme, and budget.

“Every bride that I have made a gown for has gotten married outside,” she says. “One got married in mocca- sins. One getting married this summer will be in her hiking boots. Some are barefoot. The majority of them are looking for a natural fiber gown. Some are specifically looking for a hemp wedding dress. None of them is the average bride. They are looking for some- thing different. Their mother and sister are dragging them to the bridal store because traditionally that is what you are supposed to do, and they get there, and say, ‘This is not me.’ They find my website and discover there is an alterna- tive. It is still beautiful and can be traditional but something about what I create is more personal. It touches them.”

Once Tara Lynn receives all of the information, she will send six or seven sketches to the bride. She wants the bride to feel comfortable expressing her thoughts and feelings. Tara Lynn says, “I take what you like and put it together. This is you. This is who you are.” She has created wedding dresses with paw prints, eagles, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and flowers. Tara Lynn does embroidery and appliqués, macramé, knitting, crocheting, trapunto (padding inside that gives it a raised effect), fabric paint, and block printing. She also makes veils and decorates handbags and shoes.

The groom sometimes comes to the sittings, and she has also made shirts and pants for the groom.  She is getting more requests from customers ask- ing for clothes for the groom.

Cost depends on the style and material. It is very labor intensive due to the artwork and embellishments. She does work with brides on a budget. They can buy an existing pat- tern or choose one of three existing styles and mix and match tops and bottoms and then add embellishments.

Tara Lynn has customers from all over the U.S. and Canada. She has sent some of her products as far as Califor- nia and has traveled to a trade show in Chicago. She has also participated in the Burkelyn Arts Craft Fair.

Tara Lynn’s new studio was designed with her dream of what it should look like. It is open and airy with pale green walls and a beautiful four-piece picture window overlooking the woods from the third floor of her new house. The studio has plenty of room for design- ing, sewing, and fittings. It is an appropriate setting for her creative talents, her energy, and her enthusiasm, as well as her dream of personalizing gowns for brides.

Tara  Lynn  is  ready  to re-launch her business. She says, “I decided to focus the business  on  the  wedding gowns for now to develop and improve the product. It involves investing, marketing, and branding of that project as well as the market research. I would like to get to the point two years from now where I am selling 132 items a year. I have 15 years experience mak- ing custom-designed clothes and three years making wed- ding gowns full time.” In the last two years, Tara Lynn has made 10 to 12 gowns per year. She has people who work for her from time to time, but is looking for a good seamstress or someone who has a good foundation and wants to learn.
The Cambium Group in St. Johnsbury is working on her new website, which should launch in the near future. The new website will show sam- ples of the collection dresses that clients can order. There are four different styles: Terra Bella,  Vintage  Bride,  Tara Lynn, and Custom Designs. They stand for “be enchanting, be stunning, be radiant, be you.” Dresses can be custom- ized by using different trim, embroidery, or even some- thing from your own mother’s wedding dress. The Vintage Bride dresses are all named after famous women from the ’50s. The Terra Bella dresses are all named after goddesses. The Tara Lynn dresses all have Italian names, which are part of her heritage.
Tara Lynn will also be launching her new site at www.earthbitch.com as well. Earth Bitch is the name for her site showcasing the art jackets and coats she makes, many of which have butter- flies on them. She wants to get back to making jackets onceshe has the bridal collection underway. Earth Bitch® is the nickname she got in college from her roommates because they were sick of her telling them to recycle. She liked it so much that she trademarked it right away.

She teaches at Lyndon Institute part time and has three morning classes teach- ing fashion, including mer- chandising, pattern making, design, illustrating, business, and retailing. On May 4 some of her students put on a fash- ion show with T-shirts they designed. Many of the T-shirts they used for this project came from H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everyday), the commu- nity thrift store on Depot Street in Lyndonville. The students decided to raise money for “To Write Love on Her Arms,” a non-profit based in Florida that assists people with addic- tions and depression in finding the help they need. In May, Tara Lynn, five of her students, and chaperones planned a trip to the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. McQueen was a well-known British fashion designer who died in 2010. The museum will design a tour just for Tara Lynn’s class on the history of fashion through painting and sculpture.

Tara Lynn’s husband Evan has been a mechanic for years and that is his passion. He owns Big E’s Garage in Sutton and welds and repairs cars, motorcycles, and trucks. It works well for their relation- ship that they are both pas- sionate about their work and that work gets done at any hour of the day. Tara Lynn says, “Some days I work until 9 p.m. and so does he. We try to have lunch together every day. I then usually work from 1 to 8 p.m. designing. We work on weekends and lately we have been working on the new stu- dio.” Prior to the new studio, they both worked in the same building. Evan’s shop was on the first floor, and Tara Lynn’s studio was on the second floor.

When she is not working, she enjoys time with their dog and three cats, rock climb- ing, snowboarding at Burke, mountain biking, crocheting, volunteer work in the com- munity, and traveling to New York City. She likes to “visit, eat, and go to museums and shows, and then I’m ready to come back to Vermont again.”

Where  does  Tara  Lynn see herself in 10 years? “I see myself working at a new studio, having three full-time employees, and possibly man- ufacturing three collections.” It sounds like she is designing not only dream gowns, but also her future.

Scheidet makes notes during the fitting and talks about options with her client.

Writer & Photographer – Leah Carey, Wednesday, January 25, 2012, The Caledonian-Record, Bridal Guide

When little girls dream of their wedding day, most probably envision big puffy clouds of white charmeuse and chiffon. But other girls want something a little more natural – perhaps something that reminds them of blissful days out playing in the woods.

“Where else do you get to try on a wedding dress and listen to the Smashing Pumpkins at the same time?”

That’s where Tara Lynn Bridal comes in. Tara Lynn Scheidet hand-makes all of her wedding gowns, veils and trains from natural fibers such as organic cotton and hemp and incorporates colorful artwork and objects such as feathers and seashells in her designs.

“It’s a lot different than getting something from a shop,” said Scheidet in early January. “I had a customer from Canada who ordered a dress of the four seasons. There was a bird and an animal for each season. The woolly bear caterpillar was 3-D and fuzzy and looked like a real caterpillar. You’re not going to get that from any of my competitors. You can’t mass produce what I’m making and nobody would want to.”

Scheidet works with every bride to make the perfect dress for their personality. “They’re an expression of your personality and they’re about who you are,” said Scheidet . “My main mission is to make these beautiful, natural, sustainable, personal wedding gowns. You really can’t just walk into any store and get a dress like that.

The process begins with a conversation about what you’re looking for. Scheidet has 14 styles on her website to choose from, plus the option to create a completely customized dress. But even if you choose one of the 14 named styles, you still have a lot of freedom to create the dress you want. “You could choose a dress and order it in a size 8 and I’ll cut and sew it in a size 8,” she said. “Then you can choose what you want around the empire waist or the color of the beads and flowers you want. There are all sorts of
details you can change to make it yours – the color of the lace up in the back or the color of the underlining.” You can add flowers and embroidery to a dress that doesn’t have it, or remove them from one that does.

For example, one of Scheidet’s current projects is for Jennifer Yerxa, a bride from Denmark, Maine, who will be getting married on Labor Day of 2013. Yerxa will have a barefoot wedding ceremony. Her reception will be a pig roast and music festival and she wants a “rock and roll” party dress. “Jennifer ordered Farfalle, a dress that I usually have, but she wanted it to be all natural with no artwork, so I’m not doing any artwork on it. The price dropped by half by leaving that off. But then she wants the straps to be a vintage daisy trim and a daisy belt. For the reception I’m making her a black crinoline underskirt that she’ll pull on to hang like a tutu under the dress to make it a party dress.”

Scheidet has a wide variety of trims and fabrics that she’s been collecting since she was just 12 years old. Clients are welcome to sort through her boxes (which are organized by color and type) to find the perfect addition for their dress. “You have this freedom to play with all these eclectic fabrics and trims that I have and build a dress that’s personal to you and is a reflection of who you are.”

Another bride brought her a collection of feathers from birds that her fiancé had gathered while hunting. She used some of the feathers in a hemp and twine train for the gown. She also incorporated feathers into the men’s boutonnieres and pieces for the bridesmaids. “I’m opening myself up to do more accessories now, too.”

Although some larger companies make wedding gowns in natural fibers, Scheidet is unique in the artwork, handcrafting and personal service that she puts into every dress. “Everything I make is to order. I cut and sew it for you.”

And she’s making quite a name for herself. When American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox wanted a unique natural dress for her wedding in October 2010, she found Scheidet online. The dress and its creator ended up in People Magazine. One of her creations was also worn at the Miss America pageant in 2009 by then-Miss Vermont, Ashley Wheeler.

A custom order with Scheidet requires about six to eight months. She said that people often travel as much as eight to 10 hours to see her for fittings. For people from across the country, she will ship the dress for a fitting and ask them to take pictures and return it to her.

Yerxa found Scheidet through a simple Google search. “I wondered if anyone makes a hemp dress or anything else sustainable. I Googled ‘hemp wedding dress’ and Tara Lynn was on top.” When she came in from Maine for a fitting in mid-January, Yerxa was thrilled with both the dress and Scheidet’s way of working, which includes creating the right atmosphere for the dress she’s working on. Midway through the fitting, Scheidet suggested doing black leather fingerless gloves. Yerxa exclaimed that she’d been thinking the same thing. “I’m so glad I found you!” she said to Scheidet. “Where else do you get to try on a wedding dress and listen to the Smashing Pumpkins at the same time?”

Wednesday, October 13, 2010
StyleWatch – Style News NOW 
Gillian Koenig; reporting by Marisa Laudadio

BOB BERG

When Crystal Bowersox announced her engagement to fellow musician and longtime friend Brian Walker last month, she promised to be anything but the typical bridezilla — and from her unique earth-friendly dress to her diamond-free wedding ring, the season 9 American Idol runner-up seems to have stayed true to her word. The bride wore an organic, hemp and cotton wedding gown from Vermont designer Tara Lynn to exchange her vows on Sunday at the Chicago café where she first met Walker six years ago, saying ‘I do’ with a 1.1-carat princess cut ruby ring designed by Walker and crafted by Chicago’s Traci Coughlin and Steve Quick Jewelers.

“There are no diamonds to be found as we don’t believe in the violence and injustice that occurs within the diamond trade industry,” Bowersox tells PEOPLE. “Both rings feature the masonry symbol, an infinity 8, and the Sanskrit symbol for the sound ‘om’ and a personal design that for us represents three: Brian, Crystal, and Tony.  “As for her one of a kind wedding dress?  “The gown is a simple princess line with an open back; a machine-knit hemp twine strap crisscrosses in back, “says designer, Tara Lynn. And new bride Bowersox couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. “I gave Tara Lynn the base ideas of what I wanted, and in three weeks, she created a beautiful gown made of hemp and cotton, with a handmade macramé and bead sunflower design on the front, “Crystal tells PEOPLE.  “The train of the dress is a handmade design of hemp twine, sea shells, and beads, some of which came from pieces of sentimental jewelry.  “Read more details on Crystal’s intimate Chicago wedding in the current issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Original Article at: http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2010/10/13/crystal-bowersox-wedding-dress-and-ring-details-revealed/