Kiara Williams Awards:
2014 Best Overall at the Irish Spring Festival
2015 WV Junior Fiddle Champion at Vandalia Gathering
2015 3rd place at the Mid Atlantic Grand Fiddle Championship
2015 1st place at the August Heritage Festival
2015 1st place Junior Division Mountaineer Week
2016 1st place Junior Division Mountaineer Week
2016 Best Overall at the Irish Spring Festival
2017 1st place Junior Division Mountaineer Week
2023 1st Dress for Success Upcycling Competition
2025 2nd place for the WVSF Pet Show for Sewing
2025 1st place for RCWV Upcyling Shopping Challenge
Kiara Williams Sponsors:
Kiara's Music and Sewing Story
Kiara Williams, fiddler/violinist in the duo Key to Adam, located in West Virginia, living her dream through music and creativity.
When Kiara was 8 years old, her mother showed her a video of Charlie Daniels performing one of his greatest hits, "The Devil went down to Georgia." Immediately, Kiara wanted to pick up the fiddle and learn, but her elementary school didn't have a strings program. She had to wait until she got into Middle School to be able to learn. Two years later, during Christmas, Kiara opened a gift from her parents and it was a fiddle. The joy and happiness on her face was full of excitement knowing that the following year she would be going to middle school so she could start learning her instrument. That following year, Kiara was learning violin quickly, but still felt that missing piece to her music, the fast old-time and cajun music that her mother shared with her when she was little. Since her orchestra teacher was strictly classical, Kiara's parents found her a teacher that would teach her fiddle style music.
A year later, Kiara was on Twitter and saw that Charlie Daniels was in West Virginia at the Tri-County Fair. Kiara was very excited that her favorite musician was in the mountain state, and her parents decided to surprise her by taking her to that show. When they got there, Kiara kept talking about how wonderful it would be if he was here at this festival. Finally, her parents told her she was going to see Charlie in concert that day. She was so excited and filled with joy! Before finding their seats, Kiara and her parents went to the merch table. Kiara's mother was talking to the merchandise guy and told him how much Kiara loved Charlie Daniels music and he is the reason she is learning to play fiddle. Kiara and her family got done talking to the man and went to find their seats. Ten minutes before the show started the merchandise guy came up to Kiara and her family and said, "Do you want to meet Charlie Daniels?" He took Kiara's family back to his tour bus and Kiara and her parents got to meet him. Kiara told Charlie about herself and he gave her one of his fiddle bows and his autograph. She was so excited and never expected that to happen.
After months of taking lessons, Kiara realized her fiddle teacher was teaching her wrong. So she started to teach herself the music she loved. Kiara started learning to play along with old time fiddlers and dancing at local Square Dances, and this brought so much joy to her! She met an instrument repairer by the name of Bob Smakula at a party and he told her about this program called Augusta in Randolph County, WV, and that she should check out the Old Time and Cajun week classes there. Kiara got a scholarship from the program there and couldn't wait to learn so much. During this time, Kiara was looking for a new instrument and contacted Bob to schedule an appointment. The next week, Kiara and her mother went to the shop, and she started trying out fiddles. She tried out so many instruments and then saw this 1794 fiddle made in Austria, and when she started playing it she knew it was the one. It had such a sweet old sound that was perfect.
In May 2015, Kiara was just finishing middle school and went down for the 2nd time to Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, WV for the state fiddle competition. It was her second time competing in the competition. They announced the places and Kiara was the 2015 West Virginia Junior Fiddle Champion for the state. She was very excited and couldn't believe that she had just been named the WV champion. That following July, Kiara went to Augusta, where she would learn Cajun music, old-time music, and make new friends. Kiara learned so much in these 2 weeks and progressed in her music ability so much. Augusta is a wonderful program!
After meeting Charlie Daniels in 2013, she always wanted his signature on her fiddle. In August 2015, her parents brought her to the Mountian Festival at Mylan Park in Morgantown, WV. Her family had VIP tickets and the security guards took us back to see Charlie and Kiara got her picture and his signature on her fiddle. Kiara went on to win numerous first place awards at junior fiddle competitions.
Kiara was still playing her fiddle at square dances and her friend kept telling her about this open mic at a coffee shop she should check out. She didn't go for months, until finally, one day, she walked in with her fiddle and sat down. There was a gentleman named Adam who ran the open mic and was playing one of his original songs. He encouraged people to play along and she picked up her fiddle and began to play along. The room fell silent and the music they created together was hauntingly beautiful. and that was the day Key to Adam was born.
Coming from two different backgrounds made for a very eclectic mix of genres. Their sets range from Metallica to Canon in D to Whiskey Before Breakfast. While Adam and Kiara love playing at weddings and their regular gigs, they find fulfillment in volunteering at nursing homes and showing kids how to play instruments. When they see the residents at the nursing homes with their eyes closed swaying back and forth while listening to our music - or seeing the kids light up when they play brings joy to them and brightens their day.
Now onto her sewing journey...
When Kiara was little she had a dream of someday owning a boutique and sewing her own clothes. Well when the music started her mother wasn't sure that was going to be in her future plans anymore since the music took a lot of her time. Fast forward to October 2023 Kiara and her mother (Melissa Williams) went to Hobby Lobby and she says to her mom "I want to start designing!" While they were at Hobby Lobby she found two satins on clearance, one burnt orange and the other was a dark blue, with them being on clearance she thought it was fate to start sewing. When she got home she ordered an adjustable mannequin and waited for it to come. In the meantime she focused on looking at her mom's 15 year old sewing machine. If you know Kiara's mother she is a huge "paper" crafter not sewer. She used the sewing machine for mostly sewing paper because it gave a unique look to her craft projects. Once her mannequin came it was time to start cutting and sewing. During Kiara and Adam's performances she would always wear long flowy ballgown dresses as it went beautifully to their music, well when looking for them they are extremely hard to find and can get very expensive quickly. Her first project was to make a beautiful long train ballgown to debut at The Greenbrier with the burnt orange satin. She started cutting the fabric and throwing it on her mannequin and thought to herself that it was looking pretty good, she was quite pleased with herself. She took her pieces to her mother's machine and started to sew and Kiara sewed so much on the machine that it broke within the hour. She also found out that it had an automatic bobbin winder that her mom didn't even know about. She had been taken her bobbins to her mom. After being broken hearted that the machine broke they decided o call her grandma to let her know that she started sewing and that she needed help cleaning up and learning a couple things. The next couple days later they took her dress to her grandma's (Zelda Bender) house and she started teaching and helping her fix some things. Her grandma Bender is a seamstress and has worked at the Levis sewing factory and at other local sewing factories. It was so funny when her grandma started looking at the top for her dress, her eyebrows just raised, it looked amazing on the outside the inside was the issues. Her grandma said ok when do we need to have this dress done by, and Kiara said... next week. Her mother and her stayed the night and they worked on the dress. A couple days later the dress was completed and Kiara then debuted her first sewing project at The Greenbrier during Christmas time.
That Christmas her parents bought her a Brother serger and the first project she made with it was adorable kitty pajamas! The first week into the New Year of 2024 her mother and her went to A&J Sewing Studio in Morgantown WV and she bought her first sewing machine. A Bernette b79 Yaya Han sewing machine, of course she had to get the best of the line, it also does embroidery too.
The second dress she made was debuted at the Clay Center Carnaval event and it had a long beautiful removable train, it was so gorgeous and since then Kiara has redone that dress and add more to it. She also has a passion for upcyling and loves making dresses out of recycled materials. One of her favorites things to do is use random household items for her dresses like table runners and pillow cases. The yellow dress above is upcycled, the bottom skirt is from a yellow dress and the top is a table runner from Hobby Lobby.
In June of 2024 Kiara competed in an upcycled dress competition by Dress for Success down in Charleston, WV. They gave you a bag of thrifted clothes and some of the bags were themed and some were not and when you received your bag you had to use 80 percent of the items inside the bag for your project. 99% of the Kiara's dress is upcycled materials from the bag. The lining was the only new part for the dress. They did a fashion show and the designers got to show off their designs, Kiara walked down to the song Never Enough from The Greatest Showman and then as she walked back up the aisle she removed her train and strutted back down the aisle. It was a quilted dress train with custom shoes, earrings, and headband. After the fashion walk they did a Q&A which Kiara didn't know about till then and even though she was nervous she walked up the aisle and flawlessly talked about her creation, (she likes to think Adam being next to her was a huge help.) As they were announcing the winners Kiara was sitting in the back and when they called her name for first place she couldn't help but cry happy tears. She worked so hard on her project and to hear her called out just brought so much joy to her!
One of Kiara's favorite WV Appalachia inspired dresses is her "Ramp dress." That WV delicacy that every spring you hear people talking about well she made a dress of it. The dress consists of 3 long ramp leafs that is a removable train and the body of the dress is the onion part. The straps of the dress is supposed to resemble the roots of the ramp. This is one of her favorites and she wears it when they play for their local libraries ramp dinner.
She also started designing cute Cats, Mothmans, Scrunchies, and Braxxies to sell. Her KeyCats, KeyMoths, and BraxKeys have a super snuggle pack in them so you can heat them up in the microwave. Kiara recently started selling her dresses after popularity hit with them. You can find them down below.
One of Kiara's favorite movies is Beetlejuice and when she heard Beetlejuice 2 was coming out she said "well I need to make a dress!!" She got some fabric and started creating her masterpiece. The sand worm is one of the key parts of the movie so she knew immediately that had to be one of the key features. She wanted the sandworm to wrap around her and then holding a Recently Deceased handbook. There are a lot of key features with this one but she absolutely loved getting to create this one! This dress was actually featured on Joann Fabrics social media sites, when she got the notification that they shared her post she was ecstatic and couldn't believe that Joanns shared about her. She wore her dress to the premier and her partner dress up as Alec Baldwins character Adam. She also got to model her Beetlejuice dress with Stone Tower Brews, she showed off their new Beetlejuice specials with the dress. More details about the dress in the album above including the write up from their social media.
In the summer of 2025 Kiara decided that she was going to sew outfits for her cats and enter them into the Strawberry Festival Pet Show. She started designing and measuring her cats, she wanted to design a king and queen dress for them. For her cat Shortie she designed a sweet dress that was a complete duplicate of the dress that Kiara made for herself to enter into the festivals quilt show. For Butters she designed a Kings cloak for him. Both outfits were bedazzled in sparkles and strawberries, Shortie took home 2nd place in the pet show!! They looked so adorable! Shortie didn't like wearing her dress, but Butters LOVED his, he actually now uses his cloak as a bed now. Kiara's matching dress took home a Honorable mention at the quilt show. This is one of her favorites she has created and absolutely loves how it flows on her. Her mom and her made a parade float for the Strawberry Festival Grand Feature parade and that dress was a main feature for it. She made a quilted tie, pocket square, and bowtie for Adam and also they took home 1st Place Amateur Float and Best Theme Winner.
For December of 2024 Kiara handmade 8 Christmas dresses for her performances at The Greenbrier, each different in their very own way. She was just featured on the news with her Christmas collection, her and Lauren Winans on 304 Today with WBOY 12 News modeled them and chatted about the stories each one had. Each dress has information in the photo slides.
In November of 2025 Kiara entered an upcycled competition by Recycling of Coaltion WV and they had the event at Huntigton Mall. There was 4 different categories, Newspaper, Cosplay, General (anything goes), and the Shopping Challenge. Kiara entered the shopping challenge. She took over 500 plastic bags and braided them together to make an elegant ballgown train dress. She also used pop tabs to create accessories and details for her dress. She took home 1st place in her category "The Shopping Challenge." More information about the dress and how she made it in the photo slides.
Another one of Kiara favorite things with sewing is fabric yard sales!! Anytime she can find an amazing deal sewing related she is so excited! How Kiara's obsession came with yard sales and estate sales with fabric was her father "Jason Williams" came home one afternoon while Kiara was off giging with a whole truckload of fabric. Her mother was texting her, your father just came home with a huge sortment of fabric and she was beyond excited. They opened the garage and couldn't believe how much fabric he got from this estate sale for only $25.00!! Kiara now does a lot of research of fabric sales and when Joann Fabrics was going out of business her and Adam went around trying to collect as much as possible.
Kiara loves making accessories for her partner Adam! She makes him matching, ties, pocket squares, and bowties to match her dresses. She absolutely loves getting to include Adam in her sewing projects and it adds so much to her designs.
For Kiara and Adam's daily videos they did a countdown to Christmas for December 2025. Kiara makes a lot of her outfits for there performances but she really wanted to recreate the real life and cartoon version of Cindy Lou Who's dress. She created a design and printed out the fabric for the real life one. Her first project with printing a design. Adam dressed as the Grinch and they did "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" for the real life version and "Where are you Christmas" for the cartoon version. More information about the dresses in the slides.
In October 2025 Kiara had a dream that she wanted to do a 31 day countdown to Halloween for her and Adam's daily videos and dress up for them. This was a huge step for Adam with getting out of his comfort zone and with tactile issues and OCD but he always works so hard and Kiara helps to push him and be his biggest cheerleader. With the countdown Kiara knew she had to make some of her outfits, it makes them even more special as she likes to say. Creating Sally's dress from Nightmare Before Christmas including the bat bowtie for Adam, a retro version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland dress, Emilys wedding dress from Corpse Bride, and last but not least recreating Fred Flintstone outfit for Adam to wear.
Always push yourself to be the best version of yourself, you never know what you might spark in yourself.
With Love,
Kiara Williams