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Fab FascinatorsThe upcoming wedding season prompted Ana & I to try our hand at creating
some of our own headgear stylish enough to flaunt in public.

We gathered all our supplies and committed to not having to buy anything new for the project.
let’s use up what we had on hand. I already had two visions in mind, one formal and another more casual. Actually I envisioned a beach themed event, wanting to use some sand dollars & shells I’d found on last summer’s beach vacation.

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Meanwhile, Ana started working quickly with her elements. From the beginning Ana envisioned something simple and elegant. She loved the peacock feathers but the tricky part for her was to give some shape to the bow. She tried starch first, but it wasn’t stiff enough so she ended up using some white glue diluted with water and it worked great.

I on the other hand, was struggling with just trying to create a base. After four attempts I needed a break. Neither one of my visions was shaping up as easily as I’d hoped and I was getting frustrated. Finally Ana pulled out a pink rose, I had some pink & gold wired ribbon & some fake floral beaded stems. I was finally able to put something together….not quite what I had in mind, but it was a usable headpiece. Only problem was….I didn’t really care for pink….just didn’t work for my hair colour or complexion. Ana, always being quick with a solution declared it to be for Natasha…she’s blond & likes to wear pink. Sorry Natasha, you have to wear it.

Still in need of a fascinator of my own, I had to start with a fresh slate. I admit, and I’m sorry Ana, but I cheated and broke our commitment of not buying any new stuff for the project….yes I did and I confess to it all. I searched the internet for images of fascinators to get some inspiration. Have you seen what’s out there? While some are really simple and demure, others are downright ridiculous and look almost impossible and uncomfortable to wear! At last, I knew what direction to go with….feathers! I settled on my two favourite colours, red and black which I got at the dollar store. The red ones came from a dream catcher kit and the black were from a feather boa. Cost so far…$4.00. My base was easy…circular and free…I used one of the magazine paper rolls we had created for the recycled wall art project a few months ago. Having glued the feathers all around, I needed a key focal point to give it some dimension. I found these beautiful black ribbon and fur roses at the fabric store along with black netting…cost for these items was $11.00. Glued three of the roses in the middle and fashioned the netting onto velcro to make it removable then attached the whole thing with hot glue onto a big hairclip and I was finally done. Best part…I was finally satisfied with what I put together that I truly felt I could wear it for a special occasion.

Making a fascinator turned out to be a little trickier than anticipated. It’s a terrible feeling when you can’t execute your creative vision and you have to come up with a brand new idea but it was a lot of fun. We are all so excited to wear them now…even Natasha, who had no input in what I made for her. Now we are trying to come up with an event where all of our followers can showcase their own fascinators. We’d love to see what you all came up with!

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