Downton Abbey style hat in 20 minutes!

I was invited to a Downton Abbey party last night and of course,

I waited until the last minute to fancy up my hat! I wanted to add a flower but didn't have one. I've seen tutorials on handmade layered flowers before and luckily, I had all the supplies needed at hand.

Easy Peasy!

About 20 minutes later my hat was all dressed up

and ready for the party!

We watched one of the episodes on my friends huge theater screen - seriously, it was like being at the movies! And we drank tea...well...it may not have been tea in our cups...heehee!

I know there are a bazillion tutorials out there on how to make flowers but I'd like to show you how I made this one and also the hat band.

 

Supplies:
Hat - Mine is black felt with a small bow on the side.
Synthetic sheer fabric - Mine is a thrifted sheer curtain with embroidered designs on it.
Eyelash yarn
Scissors
Candle and a match to light it
Corsage pins
Stapler - Yes, I cheated...no sewing here....I was in a hurry after all! (Sewing it would probably be a better option if you have time.)

Step 1 - Cut a strip of fabric that is long enough to fit around the hat. I made the strip wide enough that it could have some gathers once applied to the hat. Also cut several circles in various sizes - I used seven for my flower. The circles do not need to be perfectly round. They do need to be slightly larger than you want the finished flower because they will shrink when heated over the candle.

Step 2 - Heat the edges of the strip and the circles over the lit candle. Be careful not to hold the fabric too closely or too long over the flame as it does melt quickly and will make holes. (My flower ended up with a couple of holes but they're tiny and I thought it added to the vintage look.)

Once done melting the edges, each layer of the flower should look like this.

Step 3 - To give each flower layer more character, carefully heat and melt it throughout the center area.

Once done they should look something like this. (There's the tiny hole I mentioned before.)

Step 4 - Cut five strips of the eyelash yarn about two or three inches wider than the largest flower layer.

Step 5 - Place four yarn strips between two of the largest flower layers.

Step 6 - Staple at the center making sure to catch the yarn.

Step 7 - Add the remaining flower layers. Crunch up the remaining piece of yarn and place at the center of the layers. Holding everything in place, staple through all the layers to secure.

Step 8 - Overlap the ends of the fabric strip and staple to secure.

Step 9 - Place the band around the hat. I tucked it under the bow.

Step 10 - Make some pleats in the fabric and secure in a few places on the hat with corsage pins.

Step 11 - Use three corsage pins to secure the flower into place over the stapled area of the band.

A couple more views of the hat.

 

My handmade polymer clay cameo necklace was the

perfect piece of jewelry to finish off my outfit.

 

You can find my step by step tutorial on how to make

your own polymer clay cameo here.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

  
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From One Accessory to Another - Altered Couture Article

These shoes were made for walking and other things...

I must say I've had a lot of published mileage out of my "A Girl and Her Shoes" series. Biker Chic, Geometry, Butterfly, and Spider were the first to show up in the Summer '12 issue of Jewelry Affaire . Dressed Up Pearls soon followed with an article in the Autumn '12 issue of GreenCraft.

And now Autumn Leaves has found its way into the Winter '13 issue of Altered Couture.

I guess this gives this girl one more reason to love her shoes!

There's another reason why this issue of Altered Couture is so special to me...

My Sister-in-Law, Susan from Second Chances by Susan, also has an awesome article in it! She shows you how to transform a pajama jumpsuit into a beautiful dress.

How fun for us to be together in the same magazine!

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Halloween Charm Swap

Remember my Charmed Halloween series? It all started when Thespa from Vintiquities Workshop invited me to join in on her very fun Halloween Charm exchange.

I made 15 charms. Three each of five different styles.

You can find a tutorial on how to make each one:

"Watching Eye"

"Potion No. 9"

"Mummy"

"Spider"

"Caged Skull"

 

I sent my charms off to Thespa and in a few days received 15 awesome charms back. I was amazed at the variety...all so very cool and with the added bonus of fun and creative packaging! I almost hated to remove them from their tags!

 

 

I didn't want to make a bracelet that had every single charm on it - my wrist are very small and couldn't pull it off. My solution was to create a bracelet that I could add a few of the smaller charms to. It will be very easy to swap them out and use some of the other charms for a different look. It's like getting several bracelets in one!

 

I plan to use some of the larger charms for necklace pendants.

Check out Thespa's Halloween blog hop link party 

to see what everyone else created!

Happy Halloween!

 

I Wanna Be Edward's Girl!

Edward Scissorhands!

Really, what girl watched that movie and did not

fall in love with Edward (Johnny Depp)?

Who wouldn't wanna be Edward's girl for Halloween?!

Thanks to my awesome costume creating son, Brandon,

I already had the coolest part of the costume right at my fingertips

or maybe I should say "scissortips"!

You can take a look at Brandon's

more authentic version of Edward here.

 

Brandon let me use the super cool scissorhands he made by cutting scissor shapes from thin wood, painting them and attaching them to black leather gloves. Oh, I should mention the coolest part about them... he attached all the scissors to a working mechanism so that he could actually move them (together or individually) with his fingers...now that's amazing!

Brandon's clever belt system thingy looked great over my $2.99 thrift store shirt. Just for fun I added a few slashes around the collar - those scissorshands can be dangerous! Throw in a $9.99 thrifted black leather skirt and the outfit is almost finished!

This is a girly version of Edward so, of course, a few accessories were called for! I created a necklace/pendant featuring my "boyfriend" Edward from a $1.00 thrifted silver belt. I attached what was leftover from that same belt to a black headband to add a little "Edward-ish" bling into my hair. I wrapped a couple of thrifted belts around my boots to amp them up a bit and the outfit was completed!

 Just a quick haircut before I head out to the party!

Brandon has won many costume contests and his scissorhands proved to be a huge success once again as I was the big winner at my Bunko group! The prize was a case of tennis balls, which among my bunko/tennis playing friends was a very coveted prize!

Happy Halloween!

Sharing with: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS 159, Six Sisters' Stuff: Strut Your Stuff Saturday, I Gotta Create!: Wildly Original Linky Party
 
 

Caged Skull - A Charmed Halloween Tutorial

Time for the last tutorial in my "Charmed Halloween" series.

CAGED SKULL

Supplies and Tools Needed:

For the Charm:
Plastic skull, about 3/4" x 1/2" (Mine was from a purchased bracelet)  

Two tiny green iridescent beads
Dark annealed steel wire, 24 & 28 gauge

Round-nose pliers

Flat-nose pliers

Wire cutters

Epoxy glue (I used E6000)

 

For the Tag:

Small shipping tag

Brown ink pad (I used Staz-On)

Desired images (I found mine at The Graphics Fairy)

Modge Podge

Paint brush

Scissors

1. Cut the bracelet apart and choose a skull.

 

 2. Glue one bead into each eye socket. Tip: Slide the bead on a piece of wire, apply a small dab of glue, place into the socket, hold for a minute and then slide wire out while holding bead into place with your finger.

 3. Cut three 6" pieces of 24 gauge wire and one 6" piece of 28 gauge. Place the center of a 24 gauge piece in the flat-nose pliers and bend the ends upward to form a "U" shape. Repeat for the other two. Bundle the wires together and secure at the center bottom by wrapping several times with the 28 gauge wire.

4. Trim the short tail of the 28 gauge wire that extends downward. Slide the skull on the long tail that extends upward.

5. Spread the 24 gauge wires apart and gather them together above the skull to form the cage.

  

 6. Wrap the 28 gauge wire around the other wires several times to secure them into place and then trim the 28 gauge wire.

7. Spread the 24 gauge wires so that five are extending outward and one is extending upward.

8. Trim each wire extending outward to about 1/2" and use the pliers to curve them downward over the wrapped area.

9. Make a wrapped loop in the wire extending upward.
(Find out how to make a wrapped loop here)

For the Tag:

Remove the string from the mailing tag. Use Modge Podge to glue an image collage to one side of it. Let dry. Repeat for the other side. Once dried, rub with brown ink to age the images. Use the string to tie the charm onto the tag.

Front of Tag

Back of Tag

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

More tutorials from the Charmed Halloween series:

"Watching Eye"

"Potion No. 9"

"Mummy"

"Spider" 

Sharing with: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS 159

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Spider - A Charmed Halloween Tutorial

Time for another tutorial in my "Charmed Halloween" series.

SPIDER

Supplies and Tools Needed:

For the Charm:
Black button (shank style) 
28 gauge dark annealed steel wire

Round-nose pliers

Flat-nose pliers

Wire cutters

 

For the Tag:

Small shipping tag

Brown ink pad (I used Staz-On)

Desired images (I found mine at The Graphics Fairy)

Modge Podge

Paint brush

Scissors

1. Select a black button with a shank back. I chose one that had a bit of a colored design.

 2. Cut four 1 1/2" long pieces of wire.  Insert them through the shank.

 

3. Cut an 8" piece of wire. Loosely fold the wire into half and wrap around the shank and wires a couple of times with the tails extending outward in the same direction. Twist the tails together to secure.

4. Continue to tightly twist the tails together.

 5. Make a wrapped loop at the end of the wire. (Find out how to make a wrapped loop here) Use the round-nose pliers to kink the wire.

6. Spread the wires apart to create the legs. Use the very tip of the round-nose pliers to make a tiny loop at the end of each leg.

 

7. Use the flat-nose pliers to make a bend into each leg.

For the Tag:

Remove the string from the mailing tag. Use Modge Podge to glue an image collage to one side of it. Let dry. Repeat for the other side. Once dried, rub with brown ink to age the images. Use the string to tie the charm onto the tag.

Front of Tag

 

  

Back of Tag

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Be sure to return in a couple of days for the last tutorial

in my "Charmed Halloween" series!

 More tutorials from the Charmed Halloween series:

"Watching Eye"

"Potion No. 9"

"Mummy"

"Caged Skull" 

Sharing with: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS 159

Thanks for stopping by!