Finishing Touches

Along with the pomanders and bouquet, I cranked out a clutch.  With my accessory budget dwindling from my schizophrenic shoe purchases, I was left with next to zilch for a clutch.  Do I need a clutch? No.  Do I want a clutch? Yes.  I plan on carrying a small point and shoot, my lipstick, my ID, some cash, and my Blackberry.  How else will I be able to twitter at the reception, while looking good and sipping champagne??? (JK, I may or may not actually sign on to twitter to update from my reception).

Anyways, I knew the look I wanted (slender and clean) and already had the material as leftover from the pomanders, so I started searching for a purse frame.  There were surprisingly few sources, but I found a frame that I thought would work from an Etsy seller.  I was at first concerned that it was shipping from overseas (sometimes I've had things that take a month to ship, etc), but the shop had an excellent track record.  Thai Supplies sent the frame right away and more quickly than some domestic sellers with whom I've worked.  Perfecto!

 Sourced from Thai Supplies Website

After playing with some of the extra fabric I had, I decided that I wanted to buy some blue fabric to line the inside.  The total cost for the blue taffeta was about $4.00.  I followed this tutorial from U Handbag's blog.  She has a ton of really great tips and tutorials for many different styles.  I made a pattern with some tissue paper and then cut out two satin pieces, two taffeta pieces, four interfacing pieces and two lace overlay pieces.

The sewing was extremely easy.  Even if you're not super talented and have a lead foot (insert photo of me sewing like a bat outta you know where), this project will turn out ok.

The part that was not so easy was gluing the material into the frame.  It's a bit messy and I thought I could have used two more hands.

If you're super OCD, the inside may bother you a little.  I'm pointing to the visible stitching that I had to do in order to close the bag.  If you're a super sneaky sewer, you probably could have done a better job than me at hiding the stitches.  For me, this worked just fine.

Another DIY accessory I will be wearing is my birdcage veil at the reception.  You've seen it in my hair trial pics (here, here, and here) and fitting pics and I promised a little more detail.  Others have done fantastic tutorials that you can follow (Mrs. Powder Puff), but if you're more organic and just play with craft items, I'll tell you my secrets for crafting a birdcage veil with fascinator.

I started by playing with some excess tulle from my cathedral veil while I was on the phone.  I was bunching it and re-bunching until I realized what I was doing with my hands and knew that I need to get out some needle and thread because inspiration had struck!

I tacked in a few quick stitches and then grabbed a silk flower from the pomander grab bag of extra materials.  It was quite large, so I took it apart and set aside the two largest layers from the bottom.  I tacked the remaining petals and the veil base together with another few stitches.  I fished out some feathers and picked through until I found ones that curled in interesting ways.  I hot glued those bad boys in between the layers.  Then I cut a circle of felt and made a few slices so that I could work a clip into it.  The finishing touch was a small rhinestone pin which I pinned on, rather than hot gluing so that I could reuse it in the future if I wished.

All told, I made way more accessories than I thought I would.  Luckily, I enjoyed the crafting.  With several of my friends in the throes of wedding planning, I'm secretly hoping that I'll get to unleash my inner artist some more over the next few months!

With those two projects out of the way, I'm completely finished with my accessories.  Are you still looking for your finishing touches?