Monday 10 September 2012

A Leather Hair Bow




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Cute isn't it?
This darling bow looks delightfully simple, but the truth is it took me over an hour to make.

This was my first try at this particular bow, and I thought it went rather well. It involved a few minor glue-gun burns (Ouch!) and a whole lot of fiddling, but was completely worth it.

I started off with two leather lengths, approximatedly 7cm in width, and 24cm in length. Like so:

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I then took one legth of leather and hot glue-gunned the long edges down.


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This step looks really dodgy but don't worry this isn't actually visible in the finished product.

I then measured the centre of the strap of leather and drew a line of hot glue down it. I folded the straps ends into the middle and held it down until dry.

 I cut another leather strap from the other orginal length of leather(I know, I did waste a rather large rectangle of leather...Whoops!) about as long as my folded strap.

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This is where the fiddeling comes in. I had to fold and bend the leather vigurously before I was able to get the two round typical ripples in the front of the bow. Pinching the bow tightly in the centre to keep the shape I wrapped my little strap around the centre once, glued and cut off the excess leather.

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Once the bow was completely dry I was free to admire my hour and a bit of work.

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Lovely isn't it?

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Watch Hair Piece

I am a huge Steampunk fan. I know right, Gothic and Steampunk? What am I thinking?

The point is both styles are extremely awesome, and despite the fact I don't have the guts to walk around in full Gothic or Steampunk clothing I love them anyway.

I made this hairpiece because my watch stopped working. It was a very pretty watch, and I felt it was rather a shame to just throw it out. I cut the leather straps off and decided it would make a cute Steampunk hair piece. (Watch hair decorations are very cool in the Steampunk society)

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I'm afraid my photos are rather out of focus, however I'm sure you'll get the general idea.

To make this hair piece I used:

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A hot glue gun (I finally got one!),a needle and thread, a little more ribbon then the length of your arm, a hair clip, an artificial loofa (See above photo),a watch face (Working or not) and some scissors.

1.) Remove the cord from the centre of  the artificial loofa. When you have unwrapped the loofa to it's full extent you will notice it is shaped like a big tube with open ends.

Cut a large circle approximately the width of your palm. You will need to make sure that some point at the edge is not cut, so that the your circle is like a smaller version of the tube.

2.) Take your ribbon and fold it into a loop. Sew it firmly. As you make a new loop sew it onto the first loop in a petal arrangement. Continue until your run out of ribbon.

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If you would like your flower a little larger just add bigger looped petals to the back.

3.) Take your glue gun, and once it has fully heated up add some glue to the back of your flower and attach your circle-tube you cut out of the loofa.

4.) Take your watch face and glue in the centre of your flower. Leave the whole thing to dry completely.

5.) Take your hot glue gun and attach your hair clip to the back of your hair piece.

A one of a kind gorgeous Steampunk hair decoration.

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Tip: If your looking for gears or watch faces to make a similar hair piece then try your local markets and junk shops. A good wash and they're ready to go!