A mother used more than 200 fresh flowers she produced herself to make a fairytale garment as part of her art and design degree at university.

Anita Lee-Archer spent over two hours hand-picking multicolored dahlias from her Australian garden in order to construct the garment for her daughter Bella.

At 48 years old, the mother of five is studying fine arts at the University of Tasmania. Four years ago, she made the decision to return to college in order to pursue her artistic career goals.

She is now fusing her love of gardening with another interest to produce stunning art installations.

She firmly placed bird netting around her daughter Bella, who was wearing a black slip underneath, in order to affix the flowers to the dress (see the video at the bottom).

She selected hues from seven buckets of pre-cut blossoms and threaded them through the holes. ‘It came out just the way I wanted it to,’ Tasmanian Anita from Launceston stated.

‘That was a lot of fun.’ Anita claims that she was dissuaded from pursuing an artistic career as a teenager and instead went on to become a nurse and midwife.

‘My creative side has always come out. However, the common belief was that creating art would not bring in any money.

But Anita never forgot her love, and she asked her husband, a neurologist, whether she might go to college once they relocated to Tasmania.

In 2020, she happily enrolled in classes in hopes of achieving her goals. ‘I’m dying to paint some flowers. I’ve always been a gardener and breed several sorts.

Combining my loves is good. ‘You need to do what you love; it’s your work,’ a lecturer once told me.

She acknowledged that it was difficult to walk in the dress since it was ‘really heavy.’ ‘I had to fashion straps because it was originally going to be a strapless dress.’

When her degree ends this year, Anita intends to continue making art with flowers as a motif.’I find comfort in my garden.’