Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Hello fellow project enthusiasts!

Hey everyone - yes, I do exist! I know you've all probably been thinking "what's up with this slacker on our blog..." - well there was a snafu with my getting the log in email, and got that straightened up last week. So I've only been a slacker for a week. :)

Anyway, just a little introduction before I get down to the project business.

Pennie and I met in college, where we were both on the activities board. (BTW, Pennie, my following-in-your-footsteps award has been proudly displayed ever since, until I moved 2 months ago, and it is now being prepped for scrapbookage.) I was basically born into crafting - my mom is a big crafter as well. Through the years we've run the crafts section of VBS, made decorations for my homecomings and proms, made Christmas presents, decorated cakes, sewed clothes, dolls, and tons of other stuff. It's what we do.

Life now: BA English, MS Library Science. I'm librarianing at a community college, and crafting in my new apartment. My boyfriend, Jason, and I have been together for almost 4 years now. My little sister, Jackie, just got married in July. So that's all I have for now....on to the project!

So, as all of the wedding festivities were being planned in our house, my mother and I looked for every opportunity for a handmade project. The one that I took on that was my favorite was deciding that veils are way too overpriced, and that I could make something just as nice for way less money. Which ended up being true, though I highly underestimated the amount of time that goes into those things. But I enjoyed it, and Jackie did too, so that's all that matters! I didn't know I would be blogging about it, so I don't have any in-progress pictures. Sorry!

First we tried on a whole bunch of veils with her dress. It was more of an important step than I realized, because we ended up trying to recreate something that was pretty different from what she thought she wanted. I scribbled a few design ideas, and tried to figure out what the shapes were before they were bunched up on an itty-bitty comb. After that - on to Hobby Lobby! We got two different tulles - intended to try both of them, but ended up just going with the first one I cut. We got clear beads, silver beads, and ivory beads.

I cut a 60" half circle, and gathered it onto a metal comb. After trying it on, undoing it, cutting again, redoing it, trying it on, undoing it again, cutting it again, and redoing it....possibly 3 times...we were happy with the shape.


At this point, I began beading. And beading. And beading. Clear fishing wire type string? doesn't work. I ended up with ivory thread, even though you could see it more than I wanted up close, it looked great from a few feet away - and that's all we needed it to do. Here's the full veil:
















And here's an up-close shot of the beading:
















And of course, a few shots of all it's gloriousness in action:



















So that's the first project! More to come....

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