A Spool of Tulle

A spool of tulle, freshwater pearls, fabric roses, feathers, glitter, pinch beads....

I've been shopping. Wedding stuff. This is just the stuff for making the headpiece. Add a tiny wicker basket, spray paint, some ribbon, and some more of the above, and it's stuff for the flower girl's basket as well.

Just because it was there and I've been in the mood for wedding shopping, add a garter, a ring-bearer's pillow, napkins, plates, cups and plastic silverware, all in the wedding colors as well. Or close anyway. Items for the table settings will be in white instead of ivory, and red and pink instead of fuschia, colors easier to get for a Valentine's Day wedding than fuschia. At any rate, that much is done. Now I get to get "crafty".

The wicker basket was originally shades of brown and held a Christmas centerpiece. It's now ivory and stinky. So are the tips of my shoes, areas around my fingernails, spots on the backs of my fingers, and large collections of spots on the driveway and in assorted leaves. I was in a hurry for the first paint spraying and didn't go for the rubber gloves although I did remember to remove my glasses first. (Bad experience years ago on another windy day.) The paint remover does a half-assed job. Good thing I started early, eh? Gives the stuff time to wear off.

The basket will get lined with ivory tulle which will extend out over the lip of the basket and down on the right side a bit, held in place with glue, and with stitches which will also hold the fuschia ribbon in place along with fabric roses in fuschia and ivory. The ribbon is 3/8" with two outer bands in satin and a center band in tulle, or a good imitation. There'll be a bow at each handle. If I think it's justified I'll add glitter.

The headpiece steals a lot of ideas from the pictures my friend Joan sent me of her wedding headpiece, which she also made herself. There will be a forehead band of beads in three interwoven strands, in some pattern of freshwater pearls and pinch beads. I'll explain the pinch beads, figuring that since last night was the first I ever heard of them, this may also be your first time. (Hey, I can't always be the last to know everything, right?) They are glass, 4mm in size, smoothly rounded with a cross section like a triangle with a hole in it. The name comes from looking like they were pinched while being made. In color these vary from mostly clear to bits of fuschia, with the surface being irridescent. The latter helps them blend in with the pearls. The coloring is subtle, which is perfect.

I started looking for colored pearls, but nothing was the right tone and they were too big. I toyed with the idea of crystals, but while the colors were OK, the thought of their corners digging into my head all night put me off. After searching on my own unsuccessfully, I finally popped in at Jeff's last night, better known as the Taylor's Falls bead store, Non-Necessities. They've always been good at directing me to what I want, even when I'm not sure what that is. It's a few doors north of the light on 95, should you want to pop in yourself. You can usually find a curbside parking spot in front.

Back to the headpiece, I haven't decided whether to give the front more of a garland look by adding some of those fuschia roses or not. They're only about a half inch across. I'll see later, looking at it both ways. It'll be held in place, relatively parallel to the floor around my head, by elastic, upon which two layers of that same ivory tulle are gathered into ruffles, It's 10" wide tulle, and the layers will be offset just a bit and gathered from the middle so it will look like four ruffles, shortest on top with each layer a tad longer, varying between 4 and 6 inches. The edging will have glitter added, some combination of iridescent clear/white and light and dark fuschia. I have glitter, glue, and glitter glue. I'll experiment on some of the extra (10 yards total) tulle to see what works. I bought it all while I was shopping so I don't have to run out and risk not finding what I want if the first attempt doesn't look right. Where the middle of the tulle is attached to the elastic I'll be adding fuschia roses. Some of the color will show through.

It needs something of a side centerpiece, just one side. Poofy. For that I have feathers, a few larger fabric flowers, and whatever is leftover in beads to work with, possibly strung on wire this time. Not sure what that's going to look like, but we'll figure something out. So far all those centerpiece things are mostly ivory, so maybe the fuschia glitter will make another appearance. Or an appearance from fuschia roses. I bought lots. Whatever is left will get added to the trim on the ivory vest, tying it more into the color scheme.

And I still have to start the silk tunic.

Hmmm, good thing I'm starting now, eh?