Dawn Lux Sprague writes: The gown I designed, made and wore to the Return of the One Party in L.A. has won third place in the garment category of Sew News’ Magazine’s “Design with Doupioni” contest. With inspiration from Tolkien and LOTR, the gown’s design depicts a tree, complete with face and open eyes, wrapped around the body and arms of the dress over a simple forest scene. It is made from 109 individual pieces of doupioni silk in 13 different colors and is embellished with a seed bead moon and Swarovsky crystals as stars. It took approximately 250 hours and two months to design and make. It will be on display at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan on October 1-3, 2004.