While it used to be more common for brides and their families to make their own wedding dresses, today most women choose to buy their outfits for their big day.
And out of the number of brides who do craft their own wedding day couture, even fewer choose to knit their entire dress.
But that is exactly what Veronika Lindberg did when she and her partner decided to get married. Lindberg, who is from Finland and has been knitting since she was 5, shared the huge amount of work that went into her knitted wedding dress in a mini-documentary on her YouTube channel and with Insider.
Here’s her video, which she posted under her username. She goes by the YouTube handle Kutovakika, and is also called Kika. The video includes in-progress images as well as footage of the wedding itself.
As she relates in the video, the knitting content creator didn’t have much time to make her dream dress. The idea sprung up after she and her partner, who had been engaged for a year, purchased a house. Lindberg agreed to her partner’s idea to combine a housewarming party for their new place with their wedding. So, the couple sped up their wedding timeline to coincide with moving houses.
And then Lindberg had just about 50 days to complete the whole knitting project from design to final dress. She researched knitted designer dresses online, chose a lace pattern to use throughout the dress, and spent about $290 on white silk yarn.
Besides the time crunch, Lindberg also hadn’t made a full-knitted dress before. She did have a previously knit skirt to help her with the fit, but had to rip up a few dress attempts when the bodice was too big and when she decided to change the dress design.
The knitting influencer spent most of her waking hours working on the dress — including in the car and while out and about. Lindberg estimated that it took her about 200 hours of work to complete her knitted bridal attire.
Luckily the final dress was just what she’d hoped for.
“Knitting is such a big part of my life, so I’m glad that I was able to make it an important part of my wedding day,” she wrote in the piece she created for Insider.
Lindberg’s video blog about making her wedding dress now has over 3.3 million views and a slew of positive comments.
“The fact the dress essentially was knitted during days out and places you visited and days you loved is like knitting the good memories and love into your dress and wearing them as you get married to your love,” wrote one YouTube commenter.
Another exclaimed that she couldn’t believe Lindberg had made the dress in only six weeks on top of planning a wedding and moving houses.
If you’re interested in trying knitting yourself, Lindberg has a new book and a website chock full of knitting tips and patterns. But give yourself six months rather than six weeks to knit a wedding dress, Lindberg advises.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
