A Bermudian seamstress made the national dress Miss Ireland wore in this year?s Miss Universe Beauty Pageant.

Roseclare Lottimore-Cooney, who lives in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland, with her husband and children, said she received the call to design and make the dress on May 13 and had the dress completed less than two days later.

?I was lying in bed sick with the flu when the Irish Beauty Pageant Foundation called to see if I wanted to make the national costume,? said Mrs. Cooney, who said she asked if they could repeat it for her and then said, ?I am not sick any more.

?The woman from the beauty pageant said she had seen a few dresses that I had made and wanted to know if I would make it as a gift to Miss Ireland (Cathriona Duignam).

?I jumped up and went to County Cork (the town) and came back home with the fabric.

?I started at 2 a.m. on Friday and by 9 p.m. it was hanging waiting for her (Miss Ireland) to come for a fitting. By 12 noon on Saturday the photographer was here taking pictures.?

Mrs. Cooney said the dress was made out of satin and organza in the colours of the Irish flag.

She said: ?The dress was made of green, white and gold satin and organza.

?The bustier was in the same colours and the front was in a butterfly design with a gold band. And there were strips and sections covered with organza.

?The skirt was made of gold organza with a cover of gold satin and at the bottom there were stripes of gold, green and white and a mini train at the back.?

Mrs. Cooney said the only information she received was Miss Duignam?s measurements.

?She is from Dublin and they sent me her measurements,? she said, ?I had to have a fitting before it was completed and she fitted it on Friday night and went away and stayed with some friends.

?Then she came back on Saturday morning and it was finished.

?I was pretty lucky, she had hourglass measurements.?

She has lived in Ireland for almost 30 years, and moved there after she married Irishman, Seamus Cooney. They were married on Boxing Day or St. Stephenson?s Day as it is known in Ireland and they moved to the Emerald Isle on January 5, 1975.

The couple met when he was helping to build the (Fairmont) Southampton Princess a few years before. He returned home to Ireland to build a house for them and then he returned to Bermuda and asked her to marry him.

The couple and their two children Sandra, 26, and Daniel, 25, have lived in Ireland pretty much ever since.

She said: ?Before going to Ireland I was a hairdresser for Nelly Musson and I worked in several other salons, but I always sewed for myself and my half sister.

?She had the sewing machine, so the deal was that whenever I made myself something I had to make her something too,? said Mrs. Cooney.

She said when she was a child, children were taught to sew when they first entered primary school and the first item she made was a dress for her doll.

?When we learned to sew we had to learn how to draft a pattern,? she said, ?I just loved sewing and if I was going out I would lick (make) up a quick skirt.

?After the children started school, my husband and I bought a shop so I could run a hairdressers, but there were so many around.

?At that point I decided to put my hobby to work.?

She said she began making clothing at night and selling the items in the shop, but she said it was always a case of people liking the style, but it was either the wrong size or the in wrong colour.

?So I decided to just make people what they wanted,? said 56-year-old Mrs. Cooney.

?One day one of my friends got engaged and I asked her if she had decided on her wedding dress. I told her I would make it and give it to her as a gift. I surprised her because she had not seen the actual dress and loads of people were waiting outside of her house to see her dress.

?Since then I have had people ringing the door bell and coming to the shop (although she is now sewing out of her house).?

Mrs. Cooney said her only disappointment was that she did not get to see the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant on Sky (British satellite television).

?They didn?t show it and I really wanted to see it,? she said, ?Perhaps Miss Ireland will bring back a video of it.?