BOUNTIFUL—Jean Jones is one of a kind. The almost 90-year-old’s house is filled with beautiful creations from intricate beaded gowns to hand drawn blueprints she made for her own home. Jones has sewn just about everything imaginable including ski clothes and her own wedding dress. 

“I’ve been sewing since I was 5 years old,” said Jones. “I’d make clothes for my dolls. By junior high I was making most of my clothes. I’ve covered furniture, sewn men’s suits, done paintings, counted cross stitch and crocheted. Everybody opens their mouth when they see the house.”

Jones and her husband moved around quite a bit because of his job. They’ve lived in Bountiful for 26 years and before that lived in Minnesota for 17. “I was raised in Smithfield,” she said. “I got married five days before I turned 18.”

When they moved to Utah from Minnesota they moved to Jeremy Ranch, said Jones. “It was so we could ski. That’s when I started building houses. When we were in California I sketched out how I wanted to arrange the room. I did some work on the house in Minnesota and made some changes on that.” 

That’s what started her on the path to building homes. “I sketched a home for my son,” she said. “I went into business with a builder and the next year we built three homes but he took all of the money.”

Jones was self taught. “I never had any training but I got my license to be a general contractor. I built three homes in Jeremy Ranch and I totally built a home that was in the parade of homes in Davis County. I designed and built our home in Bountiful. So between Jeremy Ranch and here I built six homes.”

Jones said she drew the blueprints by hand and made cardboard models of the homes. “When the contractors saw the models they worked from that.”

While they were in Minnesota her kids got onto the ski team.”They’d come home with a lot of bumps and bruises when the poles hit them,” she said. “I created a company for custom ski clothing that I made with padding on the elbows and knees.”

Jones said she took some of the items to a ski show in Las Vegas. “I didn’t get any orders but the next year some big name brands came out with the same thing. I made all of the jackets for the ski patrol at Sundance too.”

Most of her creations she came up with on her own. “I look at something and figure out how to do it,” she said. “I have an idea in my head and I go down to my sewing room and make it.”

Every dress Jones makes she makes a necklace, bracelet and earrings to go with it. “I pick out the colors I like and figure out how to put things together. I also make a purse. Every dress has its own handbag.”

Jones has made nine wedding dresses. “I made a dress for my granddaughter that had 80,000 beads on it. When I was a girl and my cousin got married I made her a dress with a long train. I was only 16.”

In 2005, Jones was crowned Ms. Senior America. “It was for women 60 and over,” she said. “I was in my 70s. When we moved here I took over as director (of the pageant) in Utah.”

A group of the women who were in the pageants remained friends, she said. “We started the Cameo Club. We do programs at senior centers. It’s a lot of fun. Some sing, some dance, one woman plays the flute and another the guitar.”

Jones shows a display of her creations and recites poems she wrote. “The audience enjoys our program. I also make a bunch of clothes for the trip.”

At almost 90, Jones shows no signs of slowing down. She still works in her home sewing room and is surrounded by her paintings and the tile work she’s done in several of her bathrooms. “I feel blessed to do all of this.”