Autumn Queen Crown Part One

For the Historical Fortnightly Challenge for Fairy Tale, I  wanted to make up my own Fairy Tale with an older woman as the protagonist. One of the things I was inspired by was the Dolce and Gabbana crown from their 2013 collection.

I like the Byzantine feel of this

Here's a closeup

This is a different one, but I wanted a closeup for reference

I wanted to make something similar. I found several tutorials on Pinterest for lace crowns and it had potential. I found some cotton lace at Beverly's and bought a half yard for about $3.00

Very happy find

First I wrapped a wig stand in plastic wrap so it wouldn't stick to it.

No idea why this is sideways. It wasn't when I uploaded it. Odd.

I whipstitched the crown together after fitting it to my head and then sprayed it with this stuff

It wasn't particularly stiff or quik. I needed about five coats and I dried it overnight.

Most of the photos I've seen online looked like Lace sprayed Gold. I want mine to look like gold shaped into lace. After I let the lace dry overnight, I mixed up some Rub n Buff with some Diamond Glaze and painted it on.

Rub n Buff contains real metal powder

I had no idea if this would work, but I've used it to seal paper beads and it works really well on those

After letting the painted on gold dry overnight, I have this.

It still looks like painted lace, but the rub n buff makes it a little less delicate which I like

Tonight, I'm going to go to town with beads and baubles and shiny things. Stand by!

Fairy Tale for the Historical Sew Fortnightly

The Fairy Tale challenge for the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge isn't due until  April 1st, but I'm so excited for it. I am busy busy busy sewing some 18th century stays and will post pictures soon. In the meantime though, let's talk fairy tales. I am 50 years old and I have gray hair. I love my gray and I'm actually pretty happy with my age too. Sooo, where does that leave me in the fairy tale world? I can be an evil witch, an evil stepmother or an old crone that keeps the princess in the tower. Of course, nothing says I can't just make myself a Cinderella costume or some other youth driven fairy tale, but I don't want to. Why? Because I'm proud of my journey. So, I'm going to write my own. At least, I'm going to write my own outline of one and base my costume on my story. Working title: The Autumn Queen. I have a lot of orange, rust, and mustard yellow fabric also. I love the idea of a woman who struggles and reaches her autumn years and then finds out she is a Queen.

I would totally rock this Dolce and Gabbana crown

It has to be historical, but since it's a fairy tale, I can also go a little nutty with it. I love some of these fairy tale illustrations.

Illustration by Jennie Harbour

Pamela Colebourn

Felix Lorioux

I need to use them as inspiration, choose a time period and just go for it. Of course, you can't go wrong with a Worth gown.

So me

Now if anyone can think of a Fairy Tale, from any country that involves an older woman as the heroine and not the evil nemesis, I'd love to hear about it. Not a myth, but an actual fairy tale. Bring on the knowledge!