June Bride

June is the month of weddings so I have put up a wedding display at the library where I work. I display a new dress each month and this was a bit of a problem at first because I don't have a wedding gown so I altered an existing dress to make it look like a wedding gown. Crafty I am.
  I altered  my Han's dress (designed by an amazing artist juliajm15). I covered all the gold with white satin and lace, removed the black velvet ribbon and had the emblem on the front of the dress with a bouquet of flowers.

 So with a display one obviously needs props and accessories. I make a wedding cake out of playdough (make the dough from scratch too, who says I can't cook?) and painted and proudly displayed it on a cake stand I made.

With each dress I change the display table to show coordinating items for a matching theme. It is also to help circulation of the items. This is what my display next to the dress form looked like. We have books, magazines, non-fiction DVD's, and fiction DVD's and it's all for free!!! Just bring them back on time or there will be a late fee on your card. Yup.

Back to the dress. I styled a cheep (like wal-mart after Halloween sale cheep) wig which actually turned out very nicely. The tiara was a gift from one of my friends for a birthday a few years ago.

 I also make the veil to which I added something blue.

Each of the "diamonds" are set individually and are double sided to give extra sparkle. The edge was hand beaded and is not perfect because I decided I wanted a pattern after I had already gone around with one bead type and then wanted to add another and it escalated quickly from there.

And that is my non wedding dress. I hope you enjoyed the show. Until next time.

Lily of the Valley

So I work at one of the most amazing places! I usually dress up in a new costume for the Holidays at work provided I get clearance first. I haven't been told no yet.
  Well back in January our Director bought a mannequin that for the library so my dresses could go on display. Every month I put up a new dress. for February it was my Belle inspired dress , March Ellen displayed an amazing Celtic dance dress she had made for her daughter's solo, April was Cinderella dress, May (what this post is about) was my new creation Lily of the Valley, and June was my Hanna dress that was designed by juliajm15 I just covered the gold with lace and took off the black ribbon.

So my lily of the valley dress is pretty cool. I didn't think it was going to work for a while but it came together and I'm happy with the outcome. I would have liked a stronger wire around the petals but they didn't have what I needed at the store so I took the next best thing.

The top is a wrap around with extra long ties so they can go around me a few times. The sleeves are supposed to  be like the smaller flowers on the stem. The skirt consists of 6 petal shaped sections that have wire sewn around the edge and a piece of boning in the center tip to help hold the shape. The petals are all tacked together to avoid any embarrassing moments.

I think it looks a little more like a flower when I'm sitting and the petals are pushed up and out like the real flower.

This is the dress form that my boss purchased for the display. We also have a long table next to the dress form that we put coordinating things (like books, movies,& magazines) that go along with the displayed dress.

I have a lot of fun with this and people seem to enjoy seeing a new display each month so that makes me happy. It's also nice that the dresses aren't just hanging in my costume closet doing nothing. I made them because I wanted them and thought they were pretty and it's nice that my boss appreciates my hobby enough to have me display them. Awesome Boss Award!!  That's all for now but there will be more soon as my brothers are taking me to the Renaissance Festival and they are getting new costumes....I hope...