Wedding Blog

A couple of years ago a friend brought me a flower hair clip from Hawaii. It quickly became my favorite hair accessory. I am sad to say that it is looking a little dingy these days from being worn so much. It was clear as day to me what my head would be adorned with on our wedding day. A flower clip (or fascinator, as I’ve learned these are called in the wedding world) and a birdcage veil. I checked out my best friend Etsy, and I also started to think about making my own fascinator.

When we started to plan our engagement photos, I began to think about doing a practice run on the fascinator. With my 1950s party dress, a yellow flower sounded perfect.

Using the trusty Weddingbee boards as a resource, I did a quick scan of how to make a hair fascinator. Mrs Pineapple’s tutorial and this Engageology tutorial (which gave me confidence to hold perfectly good fabric above an open flame!) helped give me the info I needed to design and create my own.

I used a fair number of supplies that I already had at my house:

• White ribbon to attach the alligator clip
• Alligator clip
• Needle and thread
• Hot glue gun
• Matches and a candle
• Fray check

Mr Pretzel and I made a quick trip to Jo-Ann’s Fabric—after a unsuccessful hunt for a the most recent Jo-Ann’s fabric coupon—I missed a big opportunity to save $$. Boooo. Oh well, it was an inexpensive project nonetheless. At Jo-Ann’s I picked up:

• 1/4 yard yellow tulle
• 1/4 yard yellow bubble organza
• 1 yellow fabric flower
• 1 yellow flower button

I cut the tulle into 7 petals (almost a kidney shape—two petals) with rounded ends, and 5 longer pointed end petals. I arranged the 5 pointed end petals into a star shape and placed a 2 inch piece of ribbon on top. Using a rubber band to secure the alligator clip in the open position, I sewed the alligator clip to the ribbon and the star shaped tulle. Once secure, I trimmed the ribbon and applied fray check. In hindsight, I would use felt in the future.

attaching the hair clip to the star of tulle, which will be the base of your fascinator

Next, I used thread to cinch the middle of each of the tulle petals with the rounded ends.

Cinching the tulle petals

Arrange the tulle petals into a flower and sew together with thread. Next, take the fabric petals (in this case bubble organza) and hold carefully over an open flame. It is an art to make sure the edges melt, but not too much. Check out the before and after photos of these petals. Notice how the top petals cup like petals and the bottom petals lie flat. Also notice the difference in size—the petals will shrink, so cut accordingly.

Before: bottom petal / After: top petal

Similarly to the tulle petals, tie the organza or other fabric petals in the center with thread.

Tie off in the center to cinch

Arrange the petals into a flower and sew together in the center.

Sew into a flower shape

Like Mrs Pineapple’s tutorial, I disassembled my purchased flower (sorry, I disassembled it in the car on the way home because I was so excited for this project, so I have no before picture). I only used two of the three petal pieces to make a solid base for my tulle and my organza.

clockwise from the top: tulle flower, pointed Tulle base, organza flower, purchased flower pieces

Assemble the pieces in this order, securing with stitches as you go: Pointed Tulle base, purchased flower pieces, tulle flower, organza flower, button. Tie off and enjoy!

Not bad!

how pretty will this be?

Yay!