My embroidered wedding dress at the VESILLYA Exhibit

I was honoured to be part of the VESILLYA Ukrainian Wedding exhibit which opened June 19, 2026 at the Ukrainian American Archive & Museum (UAAM), Hamtramck, MI.

I married Eugene over 50 years ago at ImmaculateConception Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hamtramck, so this was a fitting tribute.

Actually, a mannequin wearing my wedding gown represents Ukrainian-inspired designs being incorporated on white wedding dresses from the 1960’s onwards. My wedding dress was a collaboration with my seamstress-extraordinaire mother and myself.

I found a lacy floral charted pattern in Dover Needlework Series of Charted Folk Designs from along the Danube, collected by Maria Foris. The solid row of embroidery charted between the floral top and bottom was gross. I photocopied the charted pattern twice, cut out the offending heavy row on one set, and re-taped the two lacy halves together. Then I sliced in the middle of the mirror-imaged florals and fitted the diamond-like motif in between. Once all taped, this was my repeat all around the lower skirt of my dress.

The bodice was embroidered with a center motif using the lower charted floral and a garland of cross-stitched flowers around the neck. Two bands of interlocking flowers were embroidered for the puff sleeves.

In order to embroider counted cross stitch on a satin fabric, I basted on wide waste canvas all around the the skirt. Once I embroidered the flowers, I had “fun” pulling the waste canvas very carefully because I didn’t want to dampen the canvas to avoid disturbing the fabric’s satin finish.

Before starting to embroider the dress, I would spread a white bed sheet on the floor around the living room coffee table where I would sit and stitch while sitting on the carpet. I do not have photos of this stage, but it was a very long process in between my college studies in 1973-74. There was a deadline: time for my mother to sew it all together for my wedding on August 10, 1974.

I am grateful to my six bridesmaids who embroidered motifs and the sleeve openings of their own dresses. As many of the girls lived long distance, this was a practical solution. I sent them fabric, the charted design, waste canvas and threads. They in turn embroidered and sewed their dresses for a coordinated look. It was beautiful!

Vesillya

The Ukrainian Wedding

Threads of Love, Ritual and Heritage

 

The UAAM social media post wrote: “A traditional Ukrainian wedding is far more than a single day or a private family celebration. It is a sequence of customs, symbols, songs, blessings, garments, and shared gestures that mark a profound passage in life: the joining of two people, two families, and often two communities. Through these rituals, generations have expressed ideas of love, continuity, faith, hospitality, and belonging.”

“This exhibition offers an overview of Ukrainian wedding traditions and invites us to look closely at the many layers of meaning within them. We begin with the ceremonial world of the Hutsul region, where traditional attire is especially vivid and distinctive. Hutsul clothing is known for its rich color, dense ornamentation, layered textiles, embroidery, woven belts, outer garments, and carefully chosen accessories. These garments were never simply decorative; they identified place, family, status, craftsmanship, and participation in ritual life.”

A Hutsul bride in full regalia

UAAM continues: “At the same time, Vesillya is not only about the past. The exhibition also traces how wedding customs continue to live, adapt, and take new forms in contemporary Ukraine and in Ukrainian communities outside Ukraine. In the diaspora, including here in the United States, these traditions have often served as a way to remember origins, teach younger generations, and sustain cultural identity even far from ancestral villages and towns

Bridesmaids in a contemporary Kyivan-style adaptation of a regional costume

My 1970‘s Ukrainian-style blue embroidery on a white gown

A modern contemporary dress by Helena Mila, Lviv, from 2025

There were wedding essentials

 A dramatic display of rushnyk(-y) (ritual cloths) grace the wall and one was shown under the korovai (wedding bread). Many rushnyky are used in a wedding: one for standing on during the wedding service, one which binds the couple’s hands as they process around the altar, two worn by starosty (elders) who who have ceremonial roles, one for greeting and blessing the couple with the korovai to name a few.

Rushnyky (ritual cloths) and icons for blessing

Our wedding invitations were in form of a printed rushnyk which my husband designed.

Front of invitations

Open to show English text

There were two korovai wedding breads on display. The complex one was made by pani Drohomyretska, an ethnic Hutsul who continued to bake fancy traditional breads in Detroit. It was mind-boggling to see the miniature birds on top of each dough wheat stalk of Martha Korol’s wedding korovai! My mother-in-law baked our korovai which was simpler in style with dried stalks of wheat surrounding dough love birds and periwinkle. She baked 350 loved birds which we handed out to our wedding guests as Thank You favours. Here is a link to my friend Lisa’s Korovai website where you can learn about the complexity of the bread baking and decor.

Two styles of korovai (wedding bread)

Collage of wedding photos

This collage of wedding photos spanning a century showed how brides in the early 1900s chose to marry in traditional white dress. As time went on, more elements of Ukrainian culture and traditions were adapted. Now there is an array of gorgeous stylized dressed with colorful embroidery. 

Themed information cards on wedding rituals and traditions in between many photos enhanced the exhibit.

Olga Liskivskyi and I in front of my dress

Sincere gratitude to executive director Olga Liskivskyi and exhibit coordinator Marta Sobko for the wonderful and meaningful installation.

Olga Liskivskyi at the opening

Thank you to all who contributed and those who attended the Vesillya opening. The exhibit is on all summer. Don’t miss it!

Eugene and I in front of my wedding dress

Groovy Flower Power Toronto Bead Society 2026 Bag of Beads Challenge

This year’s Toronto Bead Society (TBS) Bag of Beads was a blast from the past! 

Thank you to John Bead Corporation for donating the two tubes of “Groovy Mix” 10/o rocailles featured in this year’s Bag of Beads. The Committee threw in a dash of lemon yellow and fuchsia-lined seed beads, a string of orange bugles, 8/o olive and 6/o orange beads; blue Super Duos; a few olive large-hole acrylic beads. For interest there were a few warped glass shapes, a rosaline glass heart, and a glass circle. Plus there was a square of very orange stiff-stuff foundation.

At least one of everything in the TBS Bag of Beads had to be used in the challenge. This includes the stumper — a looking glass!

When I looked up GROOVY on Google, I found all sorts of art that screamed 1970’s. Scary thing: I remember the 70’s. The one that spoke to me was “Flower Power”, single flowers in all sorts of colours next to each other. It would be fun to just combine in random coloured seed beads in any order. Can’t go wrong because they all go so well together like the tube of “Groovy Mix”.

FLOWER POWER

No two flowers are the same. Each one started with a circle of beads like a daisy start. Then I filled in the center with a single bead of any colour or size. Next I often created a picot between the circle of beads, but by changing the base colour, it added dimension. Sometimes, I would add a string of beads around in each picot.

Occasionally, I did a 3-bead picot, or a 5-bead like the blue one in the top row of the photo below. Then, I played around with stringing different combos of beads and texture in between. The Super Duos held in place with the lemon yellow added interest and zing to a flat beaded flower.

In the lower row I strung large orange 6/o between marigold seeds around the circle. Then, I added fuchsia picots along the edge. I like this one because the complimentary colours pop.

Since the Challenge required us to use at least one of every type of bead in the bag, I cleverly dealt with a big-holed acrylic bead. I circled it with the large orange 6/o beads. Then I secured it by wrapping between each bead down the center. The thread path is part of the charm. Next, I ran through one side of the Super Duo in between the large orange beads. I strung 3 olive rocailles between the other side of the unique 2-hole beads. Because they were in such a tight circle, it created interesting motifs. Lastly fuchsia picots stand between the orange circle around the acrylic beads to create a very lush 3-D flower. 

The last photo shows a fresh flower with Super Duos petals around the lemon circled large orange bead.  

LOOKING GLASS STUMPER

This was a big challenge for me! Luckily, I had cylindrical Delica beads in my stash for beading a holder for the looking glass. Silly me had a hard time figuring how to start the mosaic (Peyote) circle of beads. Nymo thread is the wrong stringing material! You need to have an EVEN number of Delicas for the initial circle. This was not easy to count in a single colour! Now you know why I enjoy complex pattern with many color changes! (i.e. Ukrainian-style gerdans). It’s easier to count a few beads v.s. 60 teal metalic beads!

On my third try, I used 6 lbs. Fireline. Once I created the circle, I very carefully added the second row of beads on one side of the center. then turned it around to add a second row to the other side of the middle row. 

Next I found 13/o Charlotte seed beads in my sash. Very carefully I threaded a seed bead between sicking up cylinders.

Once I filled in with seed beads around the band, I pulled the Fireline tightly to cinch the ring. Then I added a single seed in between the seeds and pulled the circle tighter. This created a rounded base for the glass to rest in.

Once the glass was pushed into the cradle, I needed to repeat the process on the other side. First, I added a single Charlotte between the Delicas, then pulled the thread to tighten the other side. Next, I added another in between and tightened the circle. The glass was now securely in place. I reinforced the ring but left tails of Fireline for attachment later.

DAISY CHAINS

Don’t have step photos because daisy chains are a universal basic. The "Groovy Mix" made is easy to create fun daisy chains.

First, I started with beading a bugle daisy chain. I did an 8-bead daisy between the #3 orange bugle thinking there would be four petals on either side of the bugle. I found the flowers were lopsided probably because the center bead was too small for an eight petalled flower. I figured the Bugle daisy chain should be used for the medallion.

The continuous daisy chain has 7-petal flowers. The trick was to be consistent in how I added the center and completed each daisy every time. There is a repeat of six flowers. The continuous daisy chain is perfect for the looking glass. However, I needed something in between. The warped glass beads in the bag proved to be perfect for  softening the transition between organic daisies and engineered glass ring.

FLOWER POWER MEDALLION

I found the bright orange color of the stiff foundation overpowering. It drained my beautiful miniature works of art. On the other hand, a lot of hippy 70’s prints were very orange. There was no white in between. So, I just had to do the best I could to make my Flower Power medallion dance!

Since each flower was created individually with lots of spare thread for attachment, I was able to play around and audition several layouts. Once I secured the large flowers to the foundation, I started adding touches of zing here and there. Sometimes I had to edge petals with another color for them to stand out against the orange ground. I added a few small single daisies, attached a few warped glass beads with a blue complimentary seed. Then I stitched on the top-drilled rosaline glass heart.

TRIMMING THE EDGE

For a clean finish on the back, I added a cream faux leatherette. I auditioned two different sizes of olive beads along the edge. In my opinion, the mid-sized 8/o looked better. However, it was a very close call whether I had enough to trim all the way around. You can see how I counted spare beads by ten beads on my board. I just made it with 7 beads to spare!

To best secure the bugle daisy chain to the medallion, a single petal was stitched between two edge beads then reinforced all around. 

Once the medallion was fit tested, I put on the continuous daisy chain and held the looking glass above the medallion. My husband snapped the photo. By looking at this picture, I unpicked a few daisies before securing the looking glass.

FLOWER POWER THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS

Here I am wearing the entire creation. OR, I could wear them separately. The looking glass on the daisy chain make a nice pendant alone. The medallion on the bugle daisy chain is a work of art statement piece. 

This photo sums up my challenge: Using the looking glass to magnify the beaded flowers. Admire and enjoy!