4-H Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Challenge

by Terri Glover
(Marlin, Texas USA)

My friend and fellow American Sewing Guild member, Vanessa Bozonelos, sent me your website and said I would "never believe these dresses, they are all made from toilet paper"! She was right, I was in awe! (Contest dresses from 2006-2007.)


For the last 4 years Texas, District 8, County Extension Agencies and the Waco American Sewing Guild have co-sponsored an overnight retreat for the 4-Her's in that district. One of the funnest and most anticipated projects is the Design Challenge.

Toilet paper wedding dresses struck me as the perfect project, so I proposed it to the other coordinators. After viewing the website, everyone agreed that it would be a blast. Our County Extension Agent at the time, Pate Adams, my 12 year old daughter, Casey and myself set out to see; how hard it was to make a toilet paper wedding dress, how much toilet paper was needed and how much time it would take to make a simple wedding dress. We had a great time and knew this was going to be a winning project!

When we announced the challenge at the retreat all the young ladies were ecstatic. We kept your rules, tape, toilet paper and glue were the only materials they could use and we gave them an hour in which to create their masterpieces. They broke into groups of 4 and with squeals of delight, each group was off to a different room. The moms were hot on their heels, they could not wait to get in on the action! They were not pleased with us when we called them all back and told them that we "should just see what the girls could come up with working together". There was some grumbling a bout "a little bit of direction", but we held fast.

An hour later as the girls emerged from their rooms for the fashion show, we were all amazed with what they had come up with. In fact, we were all tripping over ourselves trying to get photos! The youngest lady at the retreat was 8 the oldest was 17. Most of the ladies were 10 to 14. It is hard to tell from the photo just how creative these dresses are, but I hope you enjoy seeing them. Thanks Cheap-Chic for a great idea, and some wonderful memories!