Using my drilled hairpins the make hair accessories with feathers and/or silk flowers for Victorian Evening or 18th Century.
Bustle Evening Feather/flower Ornament
I started with a bunch of Vintage Egret feathers. Each one is independently wired and the wires are rapped with thread. The wires are twisted and then wrapped around my twisted wire hairpin.
I then wired another vintage feather piece which I cut in half behind the Egret.
This is the other half of the decoration but re made so the stems on the feathers are shorter.
That was sewn in place in front and another Egret bundle was wired in back. I then glued several silk flowers some with crystals in front to cover the base of the feathers from the last picture.
By the time I was done it was getting messy in back so,
I glued a piece of wide satin ribbon to cover all the stems.
Very important to bend the hairpin to fit the curve of your head.
Finished ornament.
Being worn by Laurie Tavan.
Another Bustle Evening Feather/flower Ornament
This ornament is going to have some vintage Heron feathers and some velvet leaves, some berries and a rose. all black.
I cut a crescent shaped piece of black crinoline to use to sew or glue the elements onto. That can later be sewn to the holes of the hairpin.
I’m removed all the leaves from their stems.
I glued them to the end of the crinoline.
Then flipped it over and glued another set one the back because I knew that this end of the ornament would be seen from both sides.
I then stitched the faux berries to the crinoline to make the other end of the crescent.
Checked the fit for the rose and rose bud.
Clipped the stem on the big rose and tacked the buds down.
Made sure everything was tacked down even the leaves from the berries.
Final check from the front.
I clipped away the extra cronoline.
Now for the feathers. These are vintage and each wire has two or three feathers.
Because they are wired you can arrange them to most any angle you want. I twisted the wires together about 1/4 of the way down and then onto another piece of wire.
I covered that with black florist tape.
Now that can be wired onto the center of the drilled hair pin. The extra wire is cut away.
Now I can use the rest of the holes in the hairpin to sew the crescent onto the the pin.
This is how it looked from the back.
I did add a cover of ribbon for the wires.
Finished ornament.
From the side.
I read this for your giveaway! Very interesting… I’ve always worn pre-made ornaments, but it’s hard to find ones that are period appropriate. I’m inspired to make my own!
I love making things and be creative. These instructions are so helpful to follow or get an inspiration – and a lifesaver especially now during this Covid-19 horror!
Tuula
I’ve been following you on Facebook for over a year now and I learn so much from your excellent tutorials. Every hat/headpiece is a piece of art.
I only wait for an excuse to order something from this site. I would love to try making an ornament as in this article, but I I’m afraid it will not fit in my regency dominated wardrobe.
I will be finishing up a pattern that will fit you time period soon. If you do regency evening, I doing a evening head covering. Two of the Views will have a feather elements.