Earrings

Dress - charity shop

How to Make a Flapper Headdress

There are many ways of making a flapper headdress. Here's how I made this one.

You need:

Buttons/brooches

Pretty lace/trim

1-2 metres of satin ribbon

Feathers

1) Find out how much ribbon you need by tying it around your head like a headband with the ends tied at the back of your head. Decide whether you want it tied in a bow (in which case closer to 2m of ribbon is needed or just a knot. Cut the ribbon to the desired length. Seal the ends with clear nail varnish.

2) Try it on again and slip off. Measure the circumference of the loop that covers your head. 

3) Cut any decoration trim such as this lace to that measurement. Align the midpoints of the ribbon and lace and glue the lace onto the ribbon. This leaves ties at the end of the headdress that are not stiff and difficult to tie because they are covered in extra layers of decoration. While you can cover the whole length of ribbon in a thinner lace, trim such as metal diamante strands can get caught in hair so are best excluded from the ties.

4) Glue lace to ribbon backing. 

5) Glue on the diamante trim. Use a chopstick to apply small blobs of glue and the other chopstick to press the trim onto the glue. This prevents too much glue being used and things sticking to your fingers. 

6) Hang over a hat brim or other forehead-sized circle such as a biscuit tin to dry. This ensures that if glues dries stiff then the headdress does not have to be forced from a flat to curved shape which risks cracking the glue and breaking off the trim.

7) Once the glue is dry, loosely oversew the diamante trim. The glue will keep each individual diamante point in place but if the whole trim gets knocked/dislodged from wear, the stitches will stop the whole piece falling onto the floor.

8) By oversewing the links a few cm apart in a similar colour thread the stitches are invisible. 

9) Cut the feather to the desired length. Snip the quill directly rather than cut across the feathery bits. Stitch over the quill to attach it to the headband. Use a few stitches a few mm apart to ensure it is secure. Cover the area by pinning a brooch or sewing a button to hide the end of the feather. 

10) Use tiny stitches approx 1/3 to 1/2 way up the feather to secure it to the headdress. How far up you place these stitches depends how much you want the feather to stick up. Trying on the headdress and experimenting is a good idea here.

Here's what it looks like finished.

Cherry Blossom

Take some favourite new shoes and favourite old tights.

It's great to have a day when I wear no black whatsoever.

This dress was £3 from the vintage store. I adjusted it by raising the waistline.

I also shortened it.

And added hitches to the skirt.

I pulled the elastic gathering out of the sleeves.

Add a big warm scarf and pearl beads.

Plus a sky pirate coat.

And all is cosy for autumn.

Sleep Time

Silk Dress - Charity Shop

Pillowcases - made by me, aged 10

Duvet cover - made by my mother

Good Morning

Dress - New Look, Shoes - ebay, Cardi - charity shop

Christmas Dress

This dress reminds me of Christmas. Dear Christmas, I thought we agreed to ignore each other until December.

Dress - charity shop