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Thursday 10 May 2012

Bridal Fascinator for Sonia


Back in February I met with Bride-to Be Sonia to discuss creating a special fascinator for her Big Day. She was having a Vintage/Scottish style wedding and wanted me to create a piece that would fit with the style of the event and her gorgeous dress!!

At our first consultation we spent a lot of time talking about her plans for the wedding, so that I could get a feel for her day and we discussed the style of fascinators that she had been looking at. Luckily for me Sonia also had been documenting her search for inspiration through Pintrest so I was really able to see the kind of thing she had in mind. After this meeting a drew up three different designs based on the styles she had liked and presented these to her at our second consultation. The piece she chose was my favourite by far... a circular ivory sinamay base trimmed with diamantés, sequins and pearls all echoing the design in her dress. One of the things Sonia was certain about was having a birdcage veil and this she wanted to be detachable so that she could wear the simple fascinator for the evening reception. We agreed to decorate the veil with diamantés for added sparkle!!


Then work began on the piece. First I had to block the base. This was done using 3 layers of sinamay, stretched over my vintage head block, coated with stiffener and allowed to dry for a full 24 hours. Next the base was cut to shape and trimmed with matching bias binding. Then began the task of trimming the base with diamantés, sequins and pearls in ivory and blue... each sewn on by hand... the process took 3 hours to complete but the effect was stunning and very organic.





A bow was created from ivory shot satin and a lucky silver sixpence hidden in its centre. The veil was spotted with diamantés and attached  to the underside of the bow with a couple of ivory buttons.







I was so happy to be involved in creating this special piece and I'm sure you'll agree that Sonia looked stunning on her Big Day! Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Kerr!!

Queens Jubilee Pillbox by Lisa Jones (Off With Her Head Millinery)




Back at the start of the year I was invited to participate in a new design competition on Talenthouse. The brief was to make a hat to celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee. I knew straight away that I wanted to create something that celebrated Britishness, and used red, white and blue as my colour scheme. I came across a lovely cream and gold crown print cotton and knew this would be perfect for creating my hat base. I decided on a pillbox as it is simple and elegant and I feel this style is really something that is associated with the Queen.

So I blocked my pillbox in buckram and cotton interfacing, covered it with the cotton print fabric and lined it with cream wool felt. For decoration I decided to create a birdcage veil, spotted with diamantes and handmade a trio of shot satin roses each finished with a heart shaped union jack button in the centre. I finished the piece with a flourish of feathers.

Voting is currently underway as I’m sitting in the Top 50 at the moment!