Flashback: DIY Feather and Brocade Headpieces

This week’s flashback is a fun project for creating custom, colorful headpieces that are perfect for spring and summer weddings. Brookelynn shows you how to craft feather and brocade headpieces that look expensive, but can be made with scraps from your fabric & embellishments stash.

DIY Feather and Brocade Headpieces
by Brookelynn Morris
Last weekend I had the pleasure of celebrating my friend Leandra’s “Hen Night”. Her loved ones scheduled a fun night out in San Francisco that included cocktails at Burbon and Branch, dinner at Asia SF, and dancing at Bootie. It was a great time, and for my contribution, I created 15 feather and brocade fascinators for each beautiful guest. It was quite the crafting extravaganza, but once I started making them, I couldn’t stop.

Because I didn’t know what anyone would be wearing, I worked in an entire rainbow of colors. I used bulk craft feathers and remnants of brocade from my local fabric shop, a cardboard box, and simple headbands from the drugstore. And when I brought them to the party, the most amazing thing happened- each girl found a piece to exactly compliment their outfits! The headpieces, while unique, totally unified us. We stepped out as a glamorous tribe of stunners.

Materials:
Cardboard
Brocade scraps
Tulle
Feathers
Silk flowers
Butterflies
Hot glue
Headbands and blank barrettes


Step 1: Cut a piece of cardboard in a teardrop shape, about 4″ long. Make sure the barrette hardware will fit on the back.

Step 2: Cut a piece of brocade in the same shape, but make it slightly bigger than the cardboard. Make it large enough to easily cover the sides when wrapped over the teardrop.

Step 3: Cover the teardrop with the brocade using the hot glue, or any other fabric adhesive you prefer.

Step 4: Trim your feathers into new lengths, or even new shapes. I took the fluffy parts off of the pale feathers to create a short fan.



Step 5: Working sparingly, glue the feathers to the brocade in layers. Start the first layer closest to the rounded edge, and overlap new layers towards the point. I added the 2 layers of fans, then two fluffy pink feathers at the point. Then I tucked three dark and dramatic pieces in to add drama.

Step 6: Once the feathers have set and dried, flip the piece over and attach the hardware with a liberal amount of glue. Voila!