The wedding outfit

I was working on this outfit all through last week. If you follow me on Twitter (@Beatrice_Winter) or Instagram (@beatricewinter) you will have seen a few pictures of the work in progress already.

My husband and I were invited to go to a wedding in Frome in Sommerset on Friday night and decided to make a weekend of it. I will blog about the whole trip throughout the week. We decided to include day trips to Bath and Bristol on Saturday and Sunday as both places were close by and we had never been.

First of all the main reason we went down to Sommerset for though. The wedding of my husband's colleague Dale and his beautiful wife Anna. The lovely couple got married at Orchardleigh House in Frome. One of the most amazing places I have ever been to. We were wondering why they had chosen to get married here, when it is quite a track from either of their homes. This is why:

source: http://www.weddingvenues.com/venue3262.html

Of course I needed a new dress to wear to the wedding. I love jewel colours and opted for a teal satin.

The fabric was a dream to work with. I didn't use a pattern really, I used 2 to complete the whole look. I used the bodice of New look 6557 view E

For the skirt I chose New look 6917 view D without the waistband and attached it straight on to the bodice.

The Frankenstein project resulted in this

I decided to add a belt with a heavily beaded detail to the otherwise rather plain dress. I enjoyed beading the headband a few posts back so much, I wanted another beading project.

Work in progress, unfortunately once I encrusted the whole piece in beads it didn't go with the dress. At least not as a belt. I had attached it on some ribbon to tie around my waist but then decided to chop it off again, attach it to a comb and wear it as a head piece instead. It worked a treat.

I also wanted a little jacket to go with the dress. It's January after all.

I used another New Look pattern 6675 and made the little bolero from it.

I didn't add the bows or any other detail and kept it rather plain.

It looks more midnight blue in the picture here. It is however the same colour as the dress. This is what you get when you play around with photo apps to much.

In the end I wanted a little beading on the dress and just added a few rows of slate coloured seed beads around the neckline and et voila, the finished outfit.

 Dress, jacket (all lined in midnight blue as you can see in this picture), head piece and way to high shoes....

And one of the handsome guest couple for good measure...

A little bling to sparkle in cold winter nights

As the nights are long right now there is nothing better than cuddling up on the sofa with the kitty and a hot chocolate. I had many of those evenings lately but at the same time I felt like doing something productive. evenings

I have never been into beading much or anything else that is very time consuming. I like it when I start a project and several hours later -boom- I have a new piece of clothing or a new accessory.

However when many evenings are spend on the sofa, a long lasting, fiddly project is just the right thing.fiddly

So I decided to spark up a headband just in time for the holiday season.

I have a ton of beads I got from my mother in law, cut offs and samples from the bridal shop I used to work at and all kinds of bits and bobs. It all went on there and et voila:

There is a tutorial on Kazz the Spazz for a similar project. She made a gorgeous necklace covered with buttons. In case you have a few too many hours to spare, have a go yourself. The results are amazing.