Wedding belt DIY

Hello!

It is gloriously sunny here at Twirlybirdie headquarters this morning.  It makes a nice change from the heavy cloud we had been having quite a few days of before.  As I am planning on getting married next summer I have been trawling through pictures of pretty dresses and general wedding paraphernalia on-line for ideas.  I really liked some of the pretty wedding belts that I've seen.  They seem to be exactly what's needed to jazz up what would otherwise be a pretty yet plain dress.
I decided that seeing as the belts could be hundreds of pounds I would have a go at making one myself, much like I have been doing for my veil.
This is just an experiment seeing as I have no idea what shade of white or style my dress is actually to be, but I thought if it was successful maybe I could bring it wedding dress shopping with me this summer!
I bought a few bits and pieces from our local fabric shop: white ribbon, beads, and rhinestones.  From a local bead shop I bought some craft glue and a silver pendant I thought would look quite cool.
I decided to make it tie back because you never know how your belly is going to feel on the day!  At first I hadn't bought enough ribbon for it to be able to tie nicely at the back (1m) so I went back and bought 2 metres instead which was plenty.
I decided the pendant needed blinging up so I glued some rhinestones on to it.  Once this had dried I glued it on to the belt.

Gluing on my rhinestones.  It was tricky but made easier with these bead tweezers.  I placed a small dot of glue on the pendant and then placed the stone on top of that.

I then lay the pendant face side down on the ribbon so I could see where the glue needed to be placed on the back of the pendant.  Then I carefully added the glue to the back where it would be touching the ribbon and placed it facing up on the ribbon.

The next day it was sunnier so I took these pictures to make sure the stones would sparkle nicely ;)

I tried it on over my Zara dress.  I'm pleased with it so far.  Now I just have to decide what, if anything I'm going to add to it.  I kind of like it's simplicity even though it's not what I originally had in mind.  I've bought some extra beads to add some more bling but I may try and make a second belt that's more blingy as well.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post!  I had fun making this belt and now I'm tempted to glue rhinestones on to everything!

Shopping for crafty things

Hello there,

how has your week been?  Mine has been busy as I predicted.  There have been a lot of rehearsals and I have been really tired.  I'm excited that it's nearly the weekend though.  I have a show to do and after that a work party to go to which is nice.
Last weekend I did a lot of walking around town and couldn't resist popping in to the fabric store to pick up a few bits and pieces.  As well as making a veil for my wedding I decided I would have a go at making my own sparkly belt.  I saw some on-line and they are so pretty but can be quite expensive so I wanted to have an experiment and see if I could make something I liked.
I bought some white ribbon and found some pretty appliqués in the fabric store which were less than 2 euros each.  I also bought some sequins and a metal brooch to experiment with.  I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them yet but I have enough ribbon to make two belts with so I can try different things out.  I also found a delicate sparkly chain which I thought could go on the front of my veil or on the belt and some small lace flowers which I might cover the combs on the veil with.

The little lace flowers were only 6 cents each!  I'm looking forward to doing some experimenting soon, hopefully this weekend.

Twirlybirdie :)