I have seen some gorgeous ballroom jewelry like this lately at competitions and had an inkling of how to make it myself but it took Stitches and Sparkles Blessing Bennet to show the details.
Once the gown was done and those darned floats made, it was time to guild the lily.
I started with a paper cut out pattern:
The cutting board is covered with Press n Seal to keep the goop off it and no, those lovely scissors were not used on the paper!
Traced the pattern onto power mesh:
Cut it out, and added some silicone bathtub caulk. It dries clear:
Did this for a few layers, adding sheets of power mesh. There are 4 layers, I think. I let each one dry for quite awhile – over night or at least several hours. After adding the new sheet, I pressed it down with a plastic knife, then I put the pattern back over it all and taped it down:
Cut it out with scissors and a bit of sharp blade work to get into the tiny bits in the pattern:
You can see my amazing blue tooth speakers in the background. They are nice and compact, wireless Bluetooth and run off my iPad or phone, charged with a USB connection. They are good enough quality to play Stuff You Should Know or This American Life or Q with Jian Ghomeshi podcasts while the noisy old serger is going!
Add a few rhinestones and voila!
Full ballroom:
All this work for a 90 second demonstration at half time of our local university basketball game! More photos to come after Snowball this weekend!
I tried to post this comment using my iPad last night but it went all wonky so sorry for the delay but anyways….Oh my gosh you are so cute! I love that dress, the color of it, and the embellishments. And your husband is darling as well! I know you’ve mentioned that you are mismatched size-wise but to me you look adorable together – that you belong to each other. How did the 90 second demonstration go? And good luck this weekend at the Snowball!!!! I want to see pictures…maybe even some video? Pretty please? I hope you blog about all of your experiences. I can’t wait to hear (and see) all about it!
Hi Stef – DH loves to be darling and adorable. I will let him know:-) The demo went pretty well considering I tweaked my leg while warming up for it:-( But the massage therapist dug into it Tuesday (so THAT’S what they mean by “no pain – no gain! LOL) and today the physio gets her weekly crack at it. I am hoping the adrenaline will keep it pain free.
I definitely want some photos this weekend, but video may be tricky as they probably have pros there and ban video by the audience. Next weekend for sure, as the SW regionals are pretty small. We got great footage the last couple of years.
And yeah – I love my iPad and phone, but some things are still difficult. It doesn’t do cut and paste well and when I tried a blog post the other day it just gave up. I need to save up for a new mini and more memory.
Thank you for a great Tutorial.
It looks very expensive and elegant.