AFTER traipsing through store after store trying to find the perfect dress for her granddaughter’s formal, Bronte grandmother Ruth Lucas had just about given up.

The pair had spent hours combing racks of dresses trying to find one that would make Annastasia stand out at her formal in Wagga Wagga, but had come up empty-handed.

They were discussing their poor luck in Mrs Lucas’s bedroom as she packed clothes away in her wardrobe when a dress caught Annastasia’s eye — Ruth’s handmade 1960s lace wedding dress.

“We went to Birkenhead Point, she didn’t want to buy anything in Wagga because everybody would know where she bought it from and she didn’t want the same as anybody else,” she said.

Ruth Lucas with her handmade wedding dress, which her granddaughter Annastasia recently wore to her school formal. Picture: John Appleyard

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“We were in the bedroom and I was putting away clothes and she said ‘What’s that?’, and I said ‘That’s my wedding dress, would you like to try it on’?

“She tried it on and it fitted her like a glove, except for two little darts in the back that were needed, just perfect you know. She is taller than me so there was a bit of her ankle showing and she asked me if she could wear it to her formal.”

She said the pair took to dress to the dressmaker’s the next day and had small alterations made to the gown Ruth had lovingly handmade for her wedding in January 1966 to her husband Leo.

“I’m a do-it-yourself type of person and I was a dental nurse at the time and there was a dressmaker opposite where I worked and I went ‘Geez, I’m going to make my own wedding dress’, so I went over to her and I said, ‘What’s the possibilities of me making my own dress?’

“She said just do something simple, and asked what I was thinking of and I said lace because lace is its own pattern.”

With her mother in tow, Ruth shopped for the fabric in a store near Central railway station and chose the antique lace for its simple but stylish design — one that has stood the test of time.

“I believe that if you keep things for long enough they will come back into fashion again,” the mother of six said.

Having a tight budget for her wedding (“we had very little back in those days”), Ruth also set about making her own wedding cake for the reception, which was held at Kensington.

Her frugal skills have been passed on to her eldest granddaughter who similarly called on the help of family and friends to create her look for her own formal, held in Wagga Wagga on November 19, which Ruth attended.

“Annastasia wants to go overseas so she’s saving money so we went to the beauty shop where she knew someone, to do her make-up, and a friend got a bunch of dried flowers for free so they used those flowers to put in her hair and put on her purse,” she said.

“Another girlfriend came to do her toes and so it didn’t cost very much but Annastasia said, “I feel as though I’m getting married!’.”

She said her granddaughter looked beautiful at her formal and was thrilled that her wedding dress got a second outing at such a special family occasion.

“Some of those dresses at the formal would have cost a fortune you know, some of them looked fantastic, but I thought Annastasia looked so beautiful in my wedding dress, I really did.”

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