Fascinator Tutorial-Part 1!

Hello everyone,

 

As promised I am back today with part one of my fascinator tutorial! :)

 

I gave you a nseak peak yesterday but here it is again, this is the fascinator shape/type Ill be working through with you:

 

 

This is a fascinator which has a buckram (a type of stiffened woven fabric) base though many fascinators are made completely from sinamay (the more traditional light more loosely woven stiffened fabric).

 

So here are a list of materials you will need:

 

- Some card or paper

- A pen/pencil

- A few pins

- Scissors

- A ruler

- Some buckram or other stiffened fabric for your hat base

- Some fabric of your choice for coating and lining your hat

- A length of millinery wire (or craft/DIY may suit the purpose- you can experiment with whatever you have :)

- Thread and a needle (some beeswax to pull your thread through is optional)

- Uhu glue , Copydex glue or Bostik multipurpose craft glue. All will do the job :P

- Some decoration of your choice e.g. feathers, brooches etc.

 

And now here is how to begin:

 

1. First it is good to draft up/drape your hat pattern in paper first. This shape of hat starts with an oval, which two darts are then taken out of, one either end, to create the final shape. You can go with any size oval you like but here is the piece I cut out with the dimensions written on it so you can follow this exactly if you wish, or draft up something similar:

 

 

2. Make sure you have cut up into the 5cm at either end as these are the places you will now be overlapping to work out the size of the darts you want to create your shape:

 

3. Try pinning and overlapping by different amounts until you are happy with the shape- but make sure the darts are both the same size (and that the overlaps run the same- towards the back) otherwise your hat could look lopsided :P There is no set measurement for the size of the darts- just whatever you think creates a nice shape! (I found 2cm worked well for me :).

 

4. But whatever works well make sure to take a pencil and mark where your overlaps run until so that when you undo your pattern, you will see the two pencil lines and can add 1.5cm seam allowance- the seam allowance tapers to nothing at the point of the dart though. If this sounds confusing hopefully the following picture of the final hat pattern will clear it up for you :):

 

5. Use your finalised pattern (above) to cut out your buckram base for your hat:

 

6. You can the take this piece and overlap the darts (by the 1.5 cm seam allowance) and the oversew them down using your needle and thread:

 

7. Next cut a length of millinery wire long enough to go around the base of your fascinator plus a few cm overlap.

 

8.  Then sew your wire just on the inside of your base using a blanket stitch. When you get back round to where the wire overlaps lay one end just under the other and work your blanket stitches closer together to hold the ends of the wire in place securely.

 

9. Your hat base should then look like this:

 

10. Next cut your outer fabric- you do this using the same pattern as you did for your hat base- but add 1.5cm all the way around it as seam allowance and don't cut out the sections for the darts!!! Just use tailors tacks or chalk etc.. to mark the ends and point of the darts so you know where to sew the darts!:

 

 

11. sew in the darts- on the wrong side of your fabric of course and then press them towards the back:

 

12. Then take your hat base and snugly fit your outer hat fabric covering over the top. It may seem a bit awkward or like it won't go at times but I assure you it will- you want a nice smooth snug fit- not bagginess! :P

 

13. Then take your Uhu (or other glue) and stick down your 1.5cm seam allowance all the way around the inside of your hat. Then leave it for a short while to dry of course :)

 

 

That is it for the first half of the tutorial but I will return shortly with the other half which covers decorating you hat and adding a lining and hair loops.... see you soon!

 

Bye xXxXx

 

P.s. if you have any questions about any of the materials, stages or things that seem unclear I will be happy to answer or try to explain as best as I can :)

 

Bye xxx

 

The good, the bad and the very ugly!

Hi,

 

I will start with the good news as it is always best to go for the good stuff first :)

 

Well, I am having a sale on my shop! I am thinking of moving over to Esty from folksy so it is easier for people not in the UK to buy items. EVERYTHING in my shop is now £2.50 OR LESS (most items are less!) so get over and check it out, if you've had your eye on something for a while now is your chance to get it at a bargain price: click here!

My other good news is that I finally actually started to finish off the Kameez I drafted the pattern for aggess ago after I went to the Asian wedding fair and my mum bought me the fabric bundles, here is what I have got so far:

 

 

Just the neckline, cuffs and vent sides left before I am done :D I reckon I will finish it by the end of my holiday, I have the whole of next week still left which is plenty of time!

 

Further good news, I am all ready for mothers day tomorrow :) I finished  my mums card today, I turned the little cupcake cross stitch kit I completed a while ago (and blogged about :) into a cute little brooch to go on the front:

 

I hope she likes it!

 

But now.... We come to the bad news and the very, very ugly......

 

.... Yesterday I went to the tailors and dressmakers I still visit when i get time off and I broke the machine needle, I was changing it but I didn't turn the machine off. I was just thinking that I should turn it off because I reckon I could do myself a nasty injury and- BOOM- the machine needle suddenly goes straight through my finger! I remained calm and just kept apologising to Michael and Stephanie and saying 'I'm such an idiot for not turning the machine off!'

I didn't pull it out (which was the right thing to do- you should leave it in to prevent fainting, lots of bleeding, infection etc...) and Micheal took me to the hospital and I was in and out in under an hour- the hospital was really great. luckily I didn't hit bone, the needle only went through my nail and the top of my finger. Hehe, I was back rhinestoning a wedding dress and Micheal and Stephanie's with one arm in a sling afterwards! :P

 

So remember to turn sewing machines off when you are fiddling with them! Don't be lazy like I was!

 

Here is a picture of my finger with the needle as I know some of you (like I usually am :P) may be curious (Micheal told me to take a picture- I was more worried about getting it out at the time!). There is no blood in the picture as my finger did not bleed- the needle held it in so there is no gory stuff but I don't recommend looking if you are extremely squeamish- I don't want to upset any of you :) just warning you of the dangers of sewing machines!

 

So look or look away now:

 

Here is what I have got for the next few days:

 

One bandaged up finger.

 

Some lessons you learn harder than others I suppose, and I am thankful to the hospital for sorting me out so quickly, the nurse I had said she had done the same before and so had Stephanie so that made me feel less stupid! I have to wear a plastic bag over my hand in the bath- hhehe I don't think anyone could make me feel less stupid about doing that :P

 

One last pointer- never ever hold pins in your mouth, this is something I actually never do, I have heard too many horror stories about that.

 

But sewing is relatively safe, so don't be put off! :) It hasn't stopped me sewing, I was working on my Salwar all of today!

 

I hope I haven't scared any of you with my post- just go back to the pretty Kameez fabric at the top and treat yourself to something in my shop if you feel shaken! Lol

 

I promise no gruesome pics next post. See you all soon I hope you all have a lovely Sunday tomorrow,

 

Byeeeee XxXxXxXxX

Wackiness and weddings

Hi everyone :)

Sadly I can't bring you any pictures of the wedding fashion show as it had to be cancelled due to the organiser having a family emergency so my thoughts go out to her. The wedding fair did go ahead though so the lady I applied for work experience with said I could still come for an hour or so to look around etc. The building it was held in was really lovely and historic/period and when I got home I was in a bridal mood! I decided to finally start making some of the bridal headbands I designed ages ago. Here is a work in progress picture:

 

It will be interesting to see them fully done, they are coming along as planned so far :P

 

Hehe, talking about bridal wear and bringing me on to the 'wackiness' section of this post.... me and my brother went to Ripley's believe it or not in London this weekend and they had this exhibition of wedding dresses made from toilet paper!:

 

Hehe they are soo good! My dad said they are alright as long as it doesn't rain, which is very true! :P

 

In ripleys they also had these tiny shoes called lily shoes- they do really weird stuff to your feet but I just thought they looked like cute little pixie shoes:

 

They even seemed to have a pattern for them:

 

I may try it one day but a modified version as I don't want to squeeze up my feet to be all tiny!

 

In other news it is my friends birthday coming up this weekend and we are all going to Wahaca the Mexican restaurant to celebrate. I wanted to make her a little something to go along with the rest of her gifts.

 

(P.S if you are my friend whose birthday it is you should stop reading now to prevent ruining any surprises!!!!)

 

I wasn't sure exactly what but I knew I wanted it to be cute. In the end I decided to go for a panda and then just started making and Little Tall Panda was born:

 

 

He is a brooch. I called him little tall panda as he is small but his body ended up quite long :-)

One of her favourite colours is purple so I added the purple bow and buttons to make him look all snazzy and such-like. I hope she likes him :0)

 

And my last bit of this post is just an update on my corset! This week Wednesday to Thursday is the last 3 days we have to finish our corsets (though we may get a little bit of time later on if we finish our 2nd part of this project early). I am getting there with mine, it does resemble a corset properly now and all the bones are in it:

 

Just some more bias binding, putting the eyelets in and then all the tabs which will be the fiddly and potentially time consuming bits but I hope I will get it all done :-)

 

I am off to bed now to get my beauty sleep, lol :)

 

See you all soon and thanks for reading my lovely friends!

 

Byeeeeeeeeee XxXxXxXxX

Halloween giveaway!

Hi,

 

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend :) I went home for the weekend to see my family- my brother treated me to a Mcflurry (the Maltesers one- yum!), my mum bought me a new coat and my dad cooked a lovely roast dinner so I have been thoroughly spoilt :-) I also managed to get some time to put together my Halloween giveaway! Yay! So here is what is up for grabs:



 

 

• A sheet of pumpkin stickers
• A spooky sherbet dip sweet
• A Glow stick pumpkin lolly (yes it glows in the dark! :P)
• A set of Halloween beads
• 3 scrabble tiles which spell out Boo (Hehehehe I thought they were a bit of fun for you to get creative with :)
• And a little felt bat brooch handmade by me :o) Here is a close up pic as you can't see him too well in the pic above:

 

I think he looks like a Brian :P

 

Hehehe, I hope you like the prizes, I love Halloween so had good fun finding/making them!

 

To enter all you have to do is be a follower and comment below.

 

Make sure to include some way to get in touch with you e.g. blog or email address or ravelry name in case you win!

 

The give away is open to anyone, any age, anywhere :)

 

Entries close on Friday the 18th of October and the winner will be announced on the same day.

 

 

Goooood luck!

 

Speak to you all again soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

 

Hat happiness :)

Hi,

As I mentioned from Monday till today I was on a millinery course. It was millinery for beginners and we learnt all the steps of how to make a simple straw and felt hat.

 

It was really cool because we all got to choose the shape of our hat crowns and brims from a whole range of blocks (what you shape the hat on) in a big cupboard so we could do our own design rather than just a standard hat.

 

Making the hats involved a lot of hand sewing as all of the sewing of both the hats was done by hand and the thicker materials (rather than just fabric) meant I kept prodding myself, but ahh well I'm sure my hands will toughen up If I keep making more hats :P Quite a lot of effort was also involved in stretching the fabric so making hats literally involves blood, sweat and tears! But it is still super fun though!

 

Here are some shots of my work in progress:

 

 

 

And here are my finished hats! :D:

 

 

I played around with tons of different trimmings on each but in the end I liked the more simple look for each- sometimes simple is best :) I will be wearing the orange straw sun hat on holiday and I will probably wear the felt hat when I get the right occasion- it reminds me of a bugsy Malone/old fashioned gangster style, Hehehe I think it looks quite cool on me if I may say so myself :P

 

As a thank you to the course teacher- as she was so lovely and really great at explaining everything and helping people I made this little hat brooch for her using a little straw hat and some ribbons/decorations I had:

 

She liked it so I was pleased :-)

 

This is her website where she sells her hat and she also does one on one teaching in case anyone is interested: http://chloescrivener.co.uk/

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend :) See you soon,

 

Bye XoXo Bye XoXo