4 Days to Go: I Need Your Input & Wedding Shoes!

First off, I'm beginning to gather my upcoming celebratory outfits (birthday is Monday, book arrives Tuesday (still have time to pre-order here!), LA book launch Thursday) and have had this one hanging on the rack for a while.  I really love the lace detail, however the length is wrong, there's some yellowing spots on the skirt, and simply needs some help! I turn to you... I want to change this up and make it a brand new, fun colored dress to wear while kicking up my heels!   (Oh, and the heels will just be matched to whatever color we end up going with!)

What do you guys think!  What shade do you think would be perfect for this?  Something bold, something bright, something subtle??  I'd love to hear and take your ideas with me to the washing machine for a dye party :)

OK, now on to today's project!  We're working with rhinestones today!!

Nothing makes me happier than rhinestones.  I dreamt about being in The Goonies just to be able to have sat in One-Eyed Willie's boat of treasures...

...and then been able to use the jewels...

...to save Sean Astin's house!

Yeah, I have an imagination.  Back to the project...

I took the rhinestones and started to make two matching designs, because I'm making shoe clips for my bride-to-be friend Rachel!  I'm giving her the "something blue" for her big day!

I took some white felt and trimmed little squares from it...

...before I glued down the stones to the felt.

Once they were all glued down...

...I trimmed around the edges and affixed a shoe clip to the back of the felted rhinestone piece.

Her shoes were these lovely gold sandals!  She went to her backup plan when a pair of Stuart Weitzman heels she ordered from a sample sale site to match her dress came in the wrong sizing.  No returns equals going with a brand new pair of a staple shoe in her closet...

...and adding a little bit of glitz to the ends of them, by way of the shoe clips!

She's ready to go for Sunday, except the navy pants will be substituted with a gown.  A fun bit of glitz to make the shoes pop!  More pics of these guys in action will come in a few days...

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LA Book Launch Party!

For my LA/Southern California friends, come join me next week at Book Soup for the big, fun launch party of my book!!

Bring vintage pieces to chat about what to do with them, enjoy sweet treats and vino from Vibrant Rioja, and just come say hi and hang out!  I'd love to see you locals there :)  RSVP to newdressRSVP@gmail.com if you can make it!

Setting up some other events now - coming soon to NY, Phoenix, Boston, Charlotte...so stay tuned!

6 Days to Go: Rachel's Getting Married!!

So to start off with the title of today's post, my gal pal Rachel is getting married.  Yep, this Sunday is her big day and after a sweet request of veil making, I took to the tulle and prepared my friend the head piece for which she'll go down the aisle a Miss and return a Mrs. We did some testing a few weeks ago and I got the aesthetic she was going for...

...and now the piece is totally complete and I did it all with just a few easy ingredients:

1. Goody Headbands

2. Pearl Beads & Wire

3. Krylon Paint Pen & Paper Flowers

4. Tulle

Oh, and before we get to the veil making, here's a portion of Rachel's dress close up - a pretty champagne/ivory/lace blend.

I wanted to bring these colors out more, so with the use of a rose gold headband I began!

I took two bunches of paper flowers and started to draw on the edges of the flowers with the paint pen.  I didn't want to completely cover them in gold, just dab the petal edges to give them a metallic-y shimmer.

I let my flowers dry while I began to work on the tulle.  During Rachel and my practice day, we measured how long we wanted the tulle to go.  She asked for two layers, so I measured, gathered the ends of the tulle, rolled under once and hand stitched the edges down.

I did this to both pieces, but the top layer of tulle was gathered a bit more - two inch top edge versus a three inch edge for the bottom layer.  I wanted the top layer to have a bit more lift, so this is why I gathered two different edge lengths.

I hand stitched the tulle to the headband using matching ivory thread and then began to attach my flowers and pearls.  Because the flowers had wire stems, I just poked the stems through the tulle and twisted the ends together to keep them in place.  I used the copper wire to bead/weave the pearls in place and did the same twisting trick.

Once everything was attached (including a few ivory and gold shimmer roses), the veil looked just like this!!  I was so proud of the beaded-flower-craftiness!!

I tried on the finished product...

...and then the bride tried it on.  We can't show her face just yet...the element of surprise, you know!  Plus we can't have her groom accidentally checking her out before the big day!

Oh, and then I had to hide within the veil.  You know, like you do, when you're wearing a veil and not getting married.

PS, for those married ones, what did your veil look like?  Would love to hear!  I did lots of Brides Mag/OnceWed/TheKnot/GreenWeddingShoes research to see what other ones looked like before I decided which route to go.

More pics from the wedding will come Sunday night!  I'm fixing up my dress as we speak!  Also, I've been filling out lots of bookplates too for all those who've pre-ordered and filled out forms on my BOOK PAGE!  There's still time to order (until 11:59pm on 10/15) and get your hands on a bookplate or other awesome goodies :)

Head on over - http://www.newdressaday.com/book/ - there's still time!!!