DIY: How to make a feather hair fascinator

I promised I'd show you the hairpiece I made for the Kentucky Derby themed party! I probably shouldn't have waited until about 3 hours before the bit show to get started. LOL.

Here's what I did, and keep in mind, that I wanted it to be big and showy for the party, so this is not something I'd wear to the grocery store. Well, I could, but people would point and laugh at me.
(more than usual).

I started by cutting a piece of doe suede in the shape of a tear drop. It's about 1.5" wide by 2.5" long. I used doe suede because it's what I had and was sturdy. You could use a piece of leather, felt, etc.

I then cut the bottoms off of 3 peacock feathers about an inch from the center eye. Keep the bottom parts, I used those too! Arrange the feathers on the doesuede how you'd like them, and glue with a hot glue gun. I started with the 2 outside feathers and then the center one on top.

I decided it wasn't big enough (I keep telling you I'm a displaced Texan) and so I used the bottom piece as a filler in the back. I added a few little sparse feather pieces and glued them to the middle end so it didn't look all chopped up.

I then remembered that I was supposed to use chicken feathers too! I wanted a few little filler feathers which I had some barred rock short feathers and a couple Rhode Island Red rooster tail feathers.

Place your feather on a surface that you can cut on. A piece of cardboard or a self healing mat. With a very sharp pen knife, cut along the shaft of the feather to about 1 inch from the tip on each side. Trim as close to the shaft as possible. You may need to use a pair of scissors to shape the feather tip.

I then bundled them together and glued them at the base of the other feathers. (I didn't get photos as now I'm in a huge hurry!).

After I was all done, I pinned an antique brooch on the leftover piece of fabric tab on the end. I glued this whole shebang to a headband because it was too heavy for a clip. Actually, I glued it to a clip and figured out it wasn't going to work, so I glued that AND the clip to the headband.

Don't do it that way.

Also don't be in a hurry.

To give it a little extra oomph, I cut a small piece of birdcage veil and pinned it in my hair before putting the headpiece on.

Excuse the crappy light, this was in my kitchen when we got home. I was too lazy to try anything else.

{I are a photo grapher person.}

If I were going to continue to wear it, I'd cut out the filler piece and trim back some of the eye feathers so it wouldn't be quite so big.


It was a big hit - and looked very nice with my wedding dress. Yep, I wore one of my wedding dresses! (I had two). It doesn't look like a wedding dress though. I mean, how often am I going to have the chance to wear a full length dress out?

The down side to this, is that now I have someone wanting me to make them one. This is how it all gets started.
It's all down hill from here.

We are Berry Good Together - Pink Paper bag album

While cleaning my scrapbook room, AND giving a pile of stuff to Amber, I realized I had so many mini albums, or albums in progress, that I needed to be more commited to, or maybe "justify" lol.

A couple *years* ago, I bought some pink gift bags with the intention of making a paper bag album. After moving things around, and almost just sticking them in the gift wrap box, I decided that making this album would not take me long.


If you've never made a paper bag album before, they are super easy, and pretty fun. There's a ton of variations on this theme, but this is my version.

With each bag laying flat, I cut off the thick end that normally would be the bottom of the bag. To make it more interesting, I made each back progressively longer than the next - a stair step effect.

Some of my new fav paper is the berry line from K&Co. I bought it in a stack at Michaels. complete with glitter. yay glitter! :) (fyi, I like K&Co glittered products because it doesn't come off!!)

I cut a strip that was approximately 3 inches wide. I then folded that in half lengthwise and folded it over the cut off end.

I then sewed along the seam making it stronger. Do this again for each page (I have 5 pages).

I have my own binding machine, not a Zutter, but a good old office binder I bought years ago, before it got so popular to bind your own stuff. Sheesh I always knew I was on the forefront of this industry... why aren't I rich dammit? I wire bound the book, but you could also use notebook rings, ribbon or sew across the edge to bind it together.

*anyway*

I then made pages that can slip out of the bag pages. I used flowers that matched the berry paper as a "pull tab" to pull out pages.





I'm using this as just a book with random pics of Gene and I. I suppose it will be an add as you go book as we don't have a *ton* of pics together, and with the inner pages, front and back, you have about 15 places that you can add pictures!



Viola! Scrapbook album for around $3-$4 worth of paper and materials!

Page 4 of the 365 scrapbook project. I sat down yesterday and did 6 days at once. Oops. I let myself get behind a bit. I'm trying to do 2-3 days at a time. This one snuck up on me. The blog helps remind me what I've been doing!

I don't know how I found this cool link today, but it looks fun.

Fusing plastic bags to make a cutable/sewable "fabric". I am going to try it, and make some recycled plastic scrapbook albums, and I think also some grocery bags totes - which I need to remember to do more!!

I always have a ton of bags and hate to throw them away, but never remember to recycle them!