25/08/2025
❄️ Meet the artist - Amy Louise ❄️
From Christmas tree trinkets to roaming festival royalty - Amy’s journey to becoming a Snow Queen is nothing short of enchanting. What began as a headpiece stitched together from old doileys, broken string lights, vintage brooches and 15 hours of sewing LEDs soon snowballed (literally) into a full-blown winter fantasy.
“It started with the headpiece last November - decorations from my Christmas tree. I hoped that if I created an epic winter outfit, I’d land a roaming performer job at the Matariki Winter Festival. It needed to light up for night shows, so I spent 15 hours on it, sewing LEDs into old doileys, bits from my vintage sewing stash, broken string lights, and vintage brooches.
Then it stalled… until March, when I went op shopping in Australia. I found a huge white $18 dress, tried it on, and thought - perfect for the winter outfit!
Next shop I found a $2.50 pink hat and a $4 kids’ snowflake skirt. I flipped the hat upside down into a collar, used the skirt to cover the hat, then added LEDs, curtain offcuts, lace, and foam flowers. The collar took 12 hours.
A $2 curtain tassel tie became the belt, with tiny wooden snowflakes sewn on one by one (never again 😂 - 4 hours).
Back home, I added fairy lights to white fans and glued pom poms onto the bubble gun to turn it into a snow machine for maximum FUN.
More treasures appeared and bit by bit, the winter outfit became a Snow Queen. And I got the job!!”
The Thrift Shop Ball was the glittering finale - the icing on the snow cake for Amy’s frosty creation, earning her 2nd runner-up on the night 😍
