Accessories

I decided that with the lace on my dress, pearls would be a good compliment for my wedding jewelry. This decision was much easier than expected. I wanted round shaped pearls that were off-white and I wanted dangly earrings. Oh my goodness, folks, this was not easy to find. We looked EVERYWHERE. Department stores, pawn shops, Khol's. I looked through everyone's jewelry boxes. Ok, not everyone's but my sisters sent me pictures of their pearl jewelry and I looked through my mom and grandma's jewelry. Finally, I found a nice necklace and bracelet set from my grandma. She told me she never wore them so I could have them. Double score! Now came the adventure of finding matching earrings. Again, we looked everywhere. I had seen some in a department store early on in the hunt but they were no longer there when we looked again. Dang. Finally, they may have had silver hooks (all my accents were gold) but I found earrings I liked. Seriously, huge relief.

When deciding on what accessories you want, remember this is your wedding and you are the bride! (well, you can be a groom reading this too but I don't think you'll be looking for the same things as I was!) If you're wanting to go with something classic like pearls, don't settle on costume jewelry from the kid's department. Look everywhere. Don't feel like you need to spend a ton on jewelry but make sure what you're buying will look as classic as you want it. If you want to go for diamonds, again, don't settle for costume jewelry. It looks fake. I promise. When I was deciding between gold or silver, I took into account my wedding colors and the metal of my engagement ring. I had champagne color accents in the wedding colors and a yellow gold engagement ring, so for me, the choice was golds. If you want a classic look, don't go towards bold colored jewelry. I would stick with anything white, cream or ivory. My dress was stark white so I wanted an off-white pearl. If you want a touch of color, I would suggest pale colors. Even paler than pastels. You don't want to distract from you and your dress! But ultimately, it's your day. Feel beautiful no matter what!

PS I also got my bridesmaids pearl bracelets from Khol's. That one wasn't as hard of a decision!

Muy Facil Flowers (Very Easy Flowers)

I'd like you to know, I take requests on occasion. One of our readers, Heather, asked in her comment on my thrifting post for a tutorial on how to make the flowers on my hair accessory. She asked, I am delivering!

My first attempt I made two flowers out of the shoulder pads from my totally tubular '80s top. The best thing about these flowers: they are scrap pile busters! Perfect for just a little bit of pretty fabric you have left. 

Start with some pretty fabric you can't bear to get rid of 

Trace circles onto the fabric. Between 4 and 6 circles seem to be best. 

Cut out the circles. It's ok and almost preferable if they aren't perfect.

Stack the circles and while holding them between your pointer finger and thumb, cut slits around. The more slits, the puffier it will be. Twist the different layers so the slits aren't lined up. 

Fold the flower over and make several stitches, ensuring your needle goes through each layer.



Then fold the flower the opposite way and stitch again.

Voila! 

Here I have two different sizes. The ones in front needed more layers or more slits I think. The back ones I like more. 

These flowers are perfect for hair accessories,  brooches, and jewelry. 

Now go make ya some Muy Facil Flowers!!

Bow Brooch

A while ago I saw this really cute blouse on Pinterest. Pinterest tells me a while ago = 20 weeks:

Source: harrods.com via Jaime on Pinterest

I loved it! I decided that it's just a black tee with a big bow brooch. I thought, "I can make that" What can I say, I'm Wayward?

But this craft is easy. Really easy.

Materials:
36" x 6" of fabric
Matching thread

Tools: 
Scissors
Sewing Machine
Iron

Here's my fabric, recognize it?

First, fold your fabric length wise (hot dog) with the wrong side facing out. Then press the fold. You don't have to do it this way, but I like to because then I don't need to use pins when sewing.

 

Sew a seam along the edge of the fabric (but don't do it in the dark like I did...or my camera makes it look like I did)

 

Pull inside out, hem the bottoms of the tube you've just made. Iron again. Tie in a bow. Adhere a pin back to the back like this one

Total it took about 15 minutes from start to finish (I'm guessing, I got distracted)

Next time I think I'll make it even bigger!

PS Happy Birthday to my best friend, BLBP. She is the recipient of the lovely Blue Pigs quilt by my mom from last fall.

Two Quick Accessories

Lately I’ve been feeling that my wardrobe is kinda blah. I wanted to update it with some accessories. Inspiration found here

First off, I made a t-shirt scarf with my huge XL t-shirt. I’m happy one of my misfit projects could find a home.

This is what I started with:

 It's huge! I needed to show you how huge:

 That's my shirt on top of it. I'm no extra small, either!

 So this how I made my t shirt scarf. First I measured 1 inch-ish lines across the whole thing. I know I needed the lines because I can't sew, cut, draw, swim or drive straight. As you can see, my lines weren't always straight anyways. At least I tried.

I cut straight across both layers of the shirt so I ended up with loops of fabric. Next I gently stretched out the loops. It was then I was grateful my shirt was already large and stretchy. You can kind of see the white logo on the shirt in these photos.

This is how it turned out:

 I cut one loop and tied it around them all. 

 This is how it looks twisted

This is how it looks on =)

I didn't stop there! Next I made a simple brooch. I've been reading Yellow Blackbird for a while. She has some fun challenges for fashion. Aubree challenged us to wear a brooch this week. I don't own one, so I decided to make one.

Materials: Two scrapbook flowers, one clip on name tag

First, tear off that clip!

Next, glue the stacked flowers together:

Glue the clip to the back of the stacked flowers:

Tada! 

(ok, this is the same picture as above, don't hate!)

This is how it looks worn:

What accessories have you made?