Look. A lady.
It came to my attention recently that many of the fascinators available in stores these days are lame, or much too expensive.
Terrific if you are happy to wear a large U.F.O tacked to the side of your head, or an oversized cockroach bred from birth, (like the one Princess Beatrice donned at the Royal Wedding) but I happily took a different approach. That being, a large dose of flowers to look as if I had swiped past some pretty foliage, which then strategically placed itself in my hair to look as if effort was made.
Okay, so that's not how it happened. I wish it were that simple. Instead, I spent an unheard of amount of hours putting together this masterpiece to wear to Perth's Railway Stakes at Ascot Racecourse.
Several Sunday 'Crafternoons' were spent placing, sewing, un-picking and re-sewing, until I found the brilliance of the hot glue gun. Before you begin, make sure you have one of these. It will save a whole lot of time and energy in which you could use to play grip ball.
Now if you are a lady, you will know how much fun it is getting dressed up for the races. I personally like the idea of looking like a lady for just one day, or at least for the first part of the morning until the champagne hits, and you're out on the race track riding a large stick like a horse. But that story is for another day.
Here are the things you will need to make your very own fascinator. It's actually simpler than I am making out, I just like adding drama to this otherwise boring article.
What You'll Need
Teardrop Fascinator Base
Different types of artificial flowers, and one with some height.
A Comb Clip
Artificial butterfly
Vintage brooches, or other little things you feel might add a little flair
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Needle and thread
Before you begin, you want to think about colour. If you have a dress, it's a good idea to try and match your fascinator to it. However, you could start with a fascinator, then choose a dress that works around that.
I had my dress to begin, with the basic colours being white and light pink, so I decided on different shades of pink, cream, white and turquoise as a contrast colour.
My beautiful Fabled & True races dress.
For those interested, this dress was purchased from the wonderful
'Fabled & True'.
Grab your fascinator base. I purchased mine from eBay. Just do a search for
'tear drop fascinator base' and a stack will pop up at a cheap price. As my dress was light, I chose a cream coloured one.
Now start glueing down the flowers on to the base, until the base is completely covered. Cut the stems off, and glue each flower down, unless you want a little height, then you might like to glue them down from the stems. As my shoes were dark pink, I decided to section a little of this colour to the side, so the whole outfit would fit together at the end.
At this point, you might like to hold your somewhat finished work of art against your head to make sure it works with your head shape.
My somewhat finished fascinator
If you're paranoid the flowers are going to fall off you can sew a few on to the base to ensure they stay on.
Then, add your butterfly. You simply just need to glue the wings to the surrounding flowers and it will stay in place.
I had also purchased a small bird for the fascinator, which I searched high and low for (eventually found it in Spotlight) but sadly, it didn't make the cut as I was beginning to look like someone who had found rubbish and put it together in order to make a hat.
And lastly, add your height. With mine, I decided on a large leaf, ala Peter Pan, with a few tall flowers in front of that.
Hot glue a comb clip underneath, towards the back with the comb facing out so that you can slide that part in to your hair after it is styled.
If you have a vintage brooch, you can pin this at the very front to finish the look.
And there we have it, the finished product, and a fascinator you can bet your bottom dollar no-one else will have. Unless of course you lost your last bottom dollar on the races.
Races outfit complete.