The Perfect Pearl

An ivory and navy polka dotted dress definitely needs a strand of pearls!  I have come across quite a few vintage images, but have never been able to find a double strands of pearls of my own.

The simple solution was to make one!

I rescued a clasp from an old strand of costume jewelry in terrible condition, added a bit of silk thread, and this is the result.

I also knew that I wanted to make a hat or some sort of hair ornament for this dress.  I purchased some Russian veiling with the thought that I would need a suitable navy for my hat.  And while stringing the pearls, I realized that I should continue the theme.

Out came my stash of glass pearls.  They do not match the necklace, but I had plenty of them in varying sizes.  And it went so much more quickly than beading with tiny seed beads!

I started with a piece of felt, but decided the weight of the pearls needed more oomph, and added a scrap of cotton before I started stitching everything down.  The 6mm beads were stitched first, followed by some 4mm beads to fill in the spaces, and then I added a few seed beads for more coverage.

A circle of buckram was added to the back, along with another layer of felt to keep the thread nest contained!

The edges were trimmed, tucked under, and that last layer of felt stitched in place.

I really wanted to use the veiling as an actual veil . . . but I just could not make it look the way I wanted for this project.

Instead, I added it as an embellishment to the pearl base. 

The final step was to add a couple of clips to the back for obvious reasons.

It is a bit heavy (anything encrusted with beads is going to be), but the two clips kept it in place for the entire evening, so I would call this one a success!