DIY: The Fascinator

For Miss Heather's 22nd birthday last month, our good friend, Ellen, and I decided to make a little something special for everyone. So, of course, we made fascinators!

Kate Middleton wearing a pretty feather fascinator.

  A fascinator is a fancy headpiece that the British typically wear to fancy and/or formal events.

Follow the steps below to make your own fascinator to add a little pizazz to your outfit as well as ensuring your group will be seen!

Supplies

*You don't have to use every item on this list, these are just some suggestions!*

Shoulder pads or  removable swimsuit pads

Fabric of your choosing

Hot glue gun and glue

Wire

Ribbon

Bows

Flowers

Small wooden animals

Feathers

Hair combs and/or alligator clips

Tulle

Headbands

Beads

Ornaments

Whatever you want to use to decorate your fascinator!

Here is all the supplies we used + my cat, Winnie.

*Keep in mind that this is a time consuming craft that takes A LOT of creativity!* 

Step One: Take your shoulder pad or swimsuit pad and choose what you will use to decorate. 

Step Two: Cut the fabric so it will successfully cover the shoulder pad or swimsuit pad so you can't tell what's underneath. 

Step Three: Use the hot glue gun to glue down your fabric underneath (meaning, the glue won't be seen when it's on your head). 

Step Four: Take the items you chose to decorate your fascinator and use the hot glue gun to place them on your fabric covered shoulder pad. 

Step Five: Flip your fascinator facing down and take a hair comb or muitlple alligator clips and hot glue them on the fascinator in the direction you desire. 

Step Six: Rock your fascinator! 

Below are some pictures of the fascinator's we made!

The fabric and headband we
used to create Miss Heather's
bow-crown.

Ellen wearing the completed bow-crown.
We wrapped the headband with the blue-glitter fabric and hot glued it down.
Then we used a wirey, silver ribbon to create the giant bow.
Lastly, we positioned the bow and took a strip of the fabric and hot glued it around the bow and down on the headband.

Ellen using red-glitter fabric to create her heart shaped fascinator. 

A fascinator we made using purple-glitter fabric, white tulle and a gold bead.

Lastly, *because I am insane* I decided it would be fun/good idea/practical to recreate the fascinator Princess Beatrice wore to the Royal Wedding. 

Princess Beatrice wearing her jaw-dropping fascinator at the Royal Wedding last April.

 As you can see, this was not a easy task we were taking on but thanks to Ellen, we did it!

We took a styrofoam ring and shaved it down.
Then we covered it with gold fabric and used buckets of hot glue to secure it.

Then we took aluminum tape, placed two pieces of wire on the sides and
hot glued the whole thing with the gold fabric.
These were used to create the bow as well as the strands coming off of it.

The last step was to cover a shoulder pad with the gold fabric and
secure the ring onto it. This is where it got a little complicated.
Ellen had to wrap wire around and through the styrofoam ring and
hot glue it all together. Then cover the wire with a piece of gold fabric.
To place it on my head, we used two alligator clips that we hot glued underneath.

Miss Mel wearing the finished product!

Here are some photos of the group wearing their fascinators!

Miss Heather wearing her bow-crown and Elise wearing
one with gold fabric and feathers.

Elise, Miss Heather and Miss Mel wearing a fascinator
with purple-glitter fabric, white and pink feathers and a gold bow.

Have fun crafting and spread the trend!
 

-Miss Mel and Miss Heather

p.s. this isn't the first time we've worn fascinators....

Bosch, Miss Mel and Ellen wearing fascinators at Miss Mel's 21st Birthday last May.