Bridal Commission Piece

Working from this original design I was commissioned to make one in a colour to match the brides dress and use her own colours and flowers in a 1940s/50s style.

After matching the silk to her vintage dress, I blocked and wired a base, then pleated the top layer, stitched it down, covered the back in plain silk and edged it in bias tape made from the same silk.

As she has very short hair she decided she wanted some kind of small clip to hold it on as a big barrette would slip out and a headband or elastic would show on her head.

To make sure it stayed in place I put 2 strong small clips, but going in opposite directions. The idea is to clip the back one in place first then swing the front one downwards slightly to catch more hair and stop it moving on the head as the hair wouldn’t be pulled back in an updo creating natural tension.

Then we worked on placing the pieces from her own bouquet she had sent to be added, green calla lilies, wired rhinestones and peacock swords, and finished it off wrapped in loops of teal ribbon.

Finally topping it off with a big poof of Ivory English veiling, and a secret rhinestoned initial letter A brooch hidden in the back as a secret love note to her new husband.

Customer Fabulousness!

Photo Credit:  L. Scabrat 2011

So I have been super busy all week with some big intense custom orders, literally working til 10pm each night, not even time to consider a blog post, but I was taking pictures to post this week.
So it was a nice break to receive an email from one of my clients at the button shop earlier on this week with pictures of the dress she had designed and made herself and finished with a ‘necklace’ of buttons.
She had seen some buttons in my store, but she wanted them to be bigger and asked my opinion on what fabric to use after she explained she was using satin with a chiffon overlay, so I suggested the black silk charmuese, a satin effect but with a warm gauzy glow rather than a harsh sheen like poly satin, with would replicate the gauziness of the chiffon.
And here’s then end result, it looks rather fabulous! I hope she has a great time wearing it to her sons wedding.

Brides Across America

Recently I was asked to re-create some missing buttons from a dress donated to a military bride by Brides Across America.

This is one of the original buttonsAnd here are my copies work in progress, worked over an Ivory Silk Charmuese Bridal Button, then beaded with dozens of tiny clear cupped sequins, silver lined clear seed beads and centred with a bigger seed bead.
Brides Across America donates free wedding dresses to brides either serving in the military or marrying a serving soldier, as a way of saying thank you for their services. www.bridesacrossamerica.com

Haauuullll!!! New Colours

Picked up a few new colours to add to the bridal collection, Dusky Rose and Dark Red, ready for bridal buttons and roses.

So pretty…..

These pretties are going to be adorning the back of someone’s wedding dress very soon.