Lindsey’s Custom Fascinator

There is nothing more fun for me than to design a hat or fascinator for a real live person. That may sound a bit odd considering that all my designs go to real live people, but the difference is a custom piece is commissioned to go with a particular outfit that someone intends to wear for something very important to them. So when I received the email from Lindsey with the request to match her new outfit, it was so much fun to envision this piece to go with the photo of the outfit she has purchased and emailed me the link.

Lindsey described her outfit as a steampunk saloon girl costume. So nothing says saloon girl as an ostrich feather.

I set up my kitchen stove with what I needed to dye biot feathers and French veil. You can see the natural white biots on the left hand side. When I dye feathers, I usually dye several colors one after the other because it takes time to set it all up.

I requested that Lindsey pick up a paint swatch to match her outfit so that I could match fabric, feathers and net. I matched the paint swatch as best as I could and dyed biots and French veil at the same time.

I picked out two different green satins and covered two fascinator frames and added black lace over them. The one on the right is the perfect match but dulled down when the black lace was over it. In the end I chose the one on the left because the black ostrich feather pad would dull the other even more and there would not be much green showing. It is often best to coordinate with a color, not be an exact match.

I sent Lindsey an email and told her she could choose between black or green French veil and she told me to choose. I laid both over the frame and the green won out.

I made the large feather pad and here you can see it before it was added to the frame and net. A curled black ostrich feather is in the background and then stripped dark green coque feathers, followed by curled dyed green biots, black ostrich flue and last black hackle feathers all make up the feather pad. The crown jewel was then sewn onto the feather pad.

Now you can see how it all works together.

Here you can see a close-up of the crown jewel. It has a black bead hanging down from it.

When my daughter Kim saw it, she gave me the thumbs up!

I hope when it arrives at Lindsey’s home, she will be very happy with her fascinator. The following picture is the corset Lindsey chose to wear as part of her costume. The reason I asked for a paint swatch is because of my own experience with photography, light changes colors and I needed something more definite than an Internet image.

To see the original ‘Her Royal Highness” fascinator in black and red, view this link
http://teacupmilliner.com/design/her-royal-highness-fascinator

If you would like a custom fascinator made to go with your outfit or costume, please contact me
linda@teacupmilliner.com

Tags: custom