Something borrowed, something new creates one-of-a-kind wedding dress

Suzanne Buxton hates to throw things out. Especially when she can make them more beautiful.

The Lake Oswego woman has talent, energy and ambition that can barely be contained by her new shop, On A Whim Studios. Of all the things Buxton makes, however, the most beautiful are her wedding gowns. She can turn scraps and old patterns into a thing of beauty that may be impossible to get anywhere else.

"I use all different kinds of lace, all different kinds of fabric, and I reuse patterns from the 1940s," Buxton said. "I overlay them, figure them out and create something new."

Noting the wedding dress displayed in the window of her store, Buxton said, "They don’t make a wedding dress like this anymore. You can’t buy it."

Buxton’s career as a master seamstress began when she was a child in elementary school when her mother convinced little Suzie to take a home economics class. She eventually became so good at making her own clothes that she was forced to hide her skill from her friends. That is because the teenage girl ethos of the time demanded that you buy new clothes and not make homemade clothes upon breaking the unwritten law of coolness.

"I would have been mortified if my friends had known I was making my own clothes," Buxton said. "So I got very good at copying things."

Even then she was hugely thrifty and creative.

picture: coast wedding dresses

"One time I didn’t have a couple of hundreds of dollars for a dress," Buxton said. "So I dyed a king-size bed sheet and used the fabric for a dress."

The time came, of course, when Buxton very much wanted people to know about her talent for making clothes. She got started as a wedding dress maker while living in Seattle as her husband earned his degree at the University of Washington, and the couple badly needed the extra money.

When hubby got his degree and got a job, Buxton gave up making wedding gowns. But three years ago, she took up the craft again, and more and more brides are finding out about her. The inspiration for doing this was her three daughters.

"They all got married within a span of seven weeks," Buxton said. "They all wanted something different and they all have different body shapes."

Happily these three brides were the daughters of just the right mother.

Now, Buxton picks up some lace here, a classic pattern there, and one time she even picked up an entire old wedding dress. It had been forsaken by its owner, but Buxton’s keen eye saw nothing but great possibilities.

"It was hanging on the Halloween rack in a Goodwill store," Buxton said. "It made me kind of sad. I had to save it and give it a new life."

Buxton’s reputation as a wedding gown seamstress is rapidly growing, thanks to social media. More and more brides are finding her on Facebook where her name pops up on the Portland Wedding Community. It also helps that she gets great word-of-mouth from people, including her sister Deborah Ulrich, co-owner of On A Whim and a caterer who is in heavy demand in Portland. She doesn’t mind putting in a good word about sister Suzie for brides making their wedding plans.

Still, even brides who are delighted with Buxton’s wedding dresses may not fully realize what they are getting with her.

"What I do is 100-percent unique," Buxton said. "A dress like this is something no other bride has. For an occasion as awesome as a wedding you should get exactly what you want."

With Suzanne Buxton, brides don’t have to settle for anything less.

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