Shannon's Wedding Bracelet

Every once in a while I get to do a wedding piece.  I have done veils, hair combs and the occasional bracelet.  This past weekend my brother in law got married and I was fortunate enough to get to make a bracelet for his bride, Shannon.  

(in the process of working on it)

Shannon's mom had handed over her own wedding dress for Shannon to use however she wanted to for her wedding.  I was pretty nervous to start cutting into someone else's wedding dress, but it got easier after we chopped an arm off.  

We decided that the best piece of lace for the bracelet was the point that came around the wrist and pointed down the hand.  In order to make it continue to lay flat, I brought a string of beads from the point and into a ring around her middle finger.  Shannon helped pick out seed bead accents that went along with her wedding dress.  This bracelet had a snap closure and we used one of the little fabric buttons from the back of her mom's dress as a detail over the closure.  All of the crystal and pearl accents came off of her mom's tiara veil.

I also had a chance to snap a picture of her shoes after she switched into flip flops at the wedding.  They're a little dirty from running around the yard taking photos and the ceremony, it reminds me of how trashed my shoes at my own wedding got!  I had mentioned that we were working on shoes together in this previous post.  The lace on her shoes is also from her mother's wedding dress.

Shoe Project with Shannon

I offered to help Shannon with anything that is jewelry or fiber-related for her wedding.  When she was visiting us this winter she said she was having trouble finding shoes that she liked and she wanted them to have lace on them.  Well, we were already cutting the lace off of her mother's wedding dress (I know, I keep holding my breath whenever I cut), so since we have plenty of extra lace I suggested that I had a link from Pinterest about applying lace to a pair of shoes.

I had pinned this a while back because my favorite pair of patent leather platforms had a nasty tear in them, not on a seam, so they aren't really repair-able to look good, so I wanted to fix them myself. (See below photos)

Shannon and I had gone shoe shopping during the last visit, we found a pair of white Nine West shoes that were cute and comfortable.  She brought them over last Tuesday and we worked on our shoes.

(Shannon in the background pinning her lace on)

As we were cutting the lace, I figured it was much easier to pin the lace on loosely, in position, and tack it down with glue. We used Aleene's Fabric Glue.  After the glue set, we layered on the Mod Podge.  

You can see above, I stitched my tear shut.  I used my sewing machine to punch the holes, but I hand-stitched button thread through the holes I created because it was too awkward to try to stitch it in my machine.

Another major edit I applied to my shoes was nail polish.  These shoes have been through the trenches of Lansing (and Chicago, maybe some other cities), so they're pretty messed up.  I used a grey metallic-ish nail polish on the heels and to make it look consistent, on the platform part of the toe box. 

They're still not perfect, but I think I'll get another year or two of wear out of them before they're done for good.  Yes, I did try to find a replacement, but Guess isn't making this style anymore.