make your own

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Simple Wedding Rose Fascinator Tutorial

I made this hairpiece/fascinator for my friend’s wedding. She was one of my bridesmaids and really liked the ones I made for my wedding, so with her input on styles and colours she liked, I came up with this:

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Photo credit: Trinh Truong and Mai-Anh Doan

She looked stunning on her own, but I like that I had a small part to play in the look of her big day 🙂

She asked if I would also make one for her mom as a surprise, though without the veil part. Here is a shot with both. Such a sweet idea.

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Supplies:

  • 2″ x 25″ piece of fabric (I used tightly-knit jersey material. Finer or more easily fraying fabrics may require you to double up the material, meaning a 4″ x 25″ piece folded lengthwise)
  • scrap piece of same fabric about 3″ x 3″
  • embroidery thread and needle with large enough eye to accommodate
  • tulle for veil
  • broad ribbon (at least 2″ wide and ideally not satin) for leaves
  • artificial stamens (available at most craft stores)
  • hot glue gun
  • clear-drying fabric glue
  • Swarovski or other glue-on crystals (optional)
  • clear-drying tacky glue (if adding crystals)
  • alligator-style clip or other hair clip

Step 1:

Take the strip of fabric and fold it in on itself repeatedly without overlapping the folds (see image below). Then hand sew along the two sides as shown using a basting stitch. Knot off at the far right (as in image) and not at left. Take ends of string and gather fabric. You will see the rose shape form. Now tie off end. Arrange rose shape as you would like and use hot glue to tack in place. Poke stamens through. Now hot glue rose shape in place as desired. Let dry.

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Step 2:

To create one leaf (you will need to repeat this step for multiple leaves), cut four pieces of ribbon long enough that two pieces side-by-side form a square-ish shape (exactitude is not crucial). Lay two pieces one positioned above the other side-by-side (like the image on the right below) on top of cellophane or other piece of smooth plastic you don’t mind potentially getting glue on (paper will come away with the glue one dried, ruining your leaf). Apply a uniform, thin layer of fabric glue all over the upwards facing sides of both pieces of ribbon. Place the other two pieces on top, side-by-side (like the image on the left below). Press together and let dry. Basically you will have a ribbon and glue “sandwich” with the “spines” (where the ribbons meet) being perpendicular for stability.

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One your “sandwich” is dry, you can draw on a leaf shape and cut it out (see image below).

combined leaf

Step 3:

Run fabric glue along raw, cut edge of ribbon leaf to stop fraying. Dab off excess. Let dry.

Step 4:

Position and hot glue leaves and tulle in place on back of rose.

Step 5:

Sew alligator clip to fabric square. Position on back of rose and hot glue on. Trim as needed (rose will obviously not be a perfect square shape).

Step 6:

Use clear tacky glue (apply with a toothpick) to add crystals if desired.

TIP: don’t worry if tulle doesn’t lay exactly right. That’s what steam and hairspray is for 😉

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Slipper sole tutorial

As mentioned in my last post, I’ve been working on making a pair of slippers for my husband in colours from Fallout, his favourite video game. It’s been a huge undertaking, since I couldn’t find any patterns that were the style he wanted that went up to size 13. The closest I could find was this pattern, which I’ve had to heavily modify. On top of all this, he wanted a hard sole. Geeze, the demands of those who don’t craft and have no idea how complicated the thing that they are asking for is.

Well… I’m proud to say I’m finally done! The pattern to follow soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share how I made the soles. I also put the tutorial up on Instructables, where you can download it as a pdf.

Supplies:

  • patterned/textured PVC fabric (available at most large fabric stores)
  • craft foam
  • fabric on the thicker side (cotton is suggested, I used an old pair of jeans)
  • cardboard
  • pen
  • quality large scissors (you will be cutting through the PVC)
  • Shoe Goo
  • popsicle stick or other instrument for spreading glue that you are prepared to not get back

Step 1:

Make a template by tracing the outline of the person’s foot using the cardboard and pen. Compare it to the bottom of the actual slipper and make any necessary adjustments. Cut out your finished template and use it to cut out four pieces of craft foam, two pieces of PVC fabric, and two pieces of regular fabric. Pay attention to right vs. left soles as you do this.

Step 2:

Essentially you are making a sandwich of PVC on the bottom (with the PVC side outwards so that it will be the very bottom of the sole, the part that makes contact with the ground), two layers of foam, and then the fabric layer on top. Between each layer is a liberally applied coat of Shoe Goo.

I suppose other glues are possible, but I highly recommend Shoe Goo. It is designed specifically for shoes in that when it dries it is clear, solid and non-tacky, but still has some flexibility. Plus the hold is superior. Nothing is going to get your layers apart. It is not easy to work with however as it sticks to everything in its wet state. This is why I recommend using a popsicle stick to spread it. However I ultimately still ended up using my fingers at some points, so be sure to have a good hand cleaner present. Something like Fast Orange is ideal, but I got by with a dish scrubber and some dish soap.

Step 3:

Give the sole a full 48 hours to dry and cure. That was a lot of glue, after all. Then you can finally add the last layer – the slipper itself! Make sure you give it about 24 hours to dry and cure.

Ta-da!

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Make your own purse from duct tape

Just a quick post to share a free craft pattern I’ve developed.

At work we needed to have programs for the tweens and teens this summer that were of a creative, crafty, makey variety. So, I thought about duct tape, simply because it’s easy to make cool stuff with and it comes in some pretty neat colours and patterns now.

Then I thought “what can we make with it?” It had to be simple but useful. I decided on clutches and/or wallets (made the same way but a smaller size). I spent some time Googling, some time looking at books like this one.

But I wasn’t really finding what I wanted. This and this were the closest, but no real instructions were given.

So, I wrote Make your own clutch.

Here are some pictures of the fun the kids had, and how super creative they were!

 (cropped to remove faces for privacy. These are kids after all)
Copy of clutch craft 3

Copy of clutch craft 7

Copy of clutch craft 5

clutch craft 9

Copy of clutch craft 6