Image: Mathy Shoots People
Today we have a super awesome (& easy!) DIY tutorial brought to you by a recent Capitol Romance bride (and super crafter). Kara & Justin’s DC wedding was one of my FAVORITES because it was just so them. Kara was suffering a bit of the post-wedding planning blues and decided to remedy it with re-making some of her DIY wedding crafts to share as tutorials on the blog! Up first, her DIY Lace Hair Comb.
DIY Lace Hair Comb | By: Kara Britanik
When I first started thinking about and planning my wedding, I knew I wanted as many personal touches as possible. Last summer when I was helping my parents move out of my childhood home, we came across my mom’s wedding dress. It was a satin and lace number that had been nicely preserved after all these years. I’m a few inches taller than my mom, so wearing her dress wasn’t an option. But since the lace was in great condition, I decided to repurpose it to make a hair comb for myself, and to wrap around my and my bridesmaids’ bouquets. For the next couple weeks, when I was watching tv, I multi-tasked and took the lace off her dress at the same time. I was left with quite a bit of lace, but it allowed me to pick and choose the designs I wanted to use for the hair comb.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Lace
- Plastic hair comb (I found mine at Michael’s, but any craft store should have them)
- Thread (the same color as your lace)
- Needle
- Glue (make sure it will dry clear)
- Wax Paper
- Small piece of cardboard or foam
- Straight pins or safety pins
Whether you’re repurposing some old lace, or you just picked some up from the fabric store, the first thing you’ll need to do is cut out the different shapes or patterns you want. The lace from my mom’s dress had flowers and leaves in all different shapes and sizes, leaving me several options to choose from.
Once you have your pieces of lace, you’ll need to stiffen it. If you look online, you’ll find a few different methods such as using starch or mod podge. The technique I used (and what I’ll share in this post) involved watering down some glue. In a plastic container, mix equal parts glue and water. Be sure to mix it together really well so it is the same consistency throughout. You’ll also want to set up a little drying station by putting a piece of wax paper on top of a piece of form or cardboard.
Once your watery glue is mixed, submerge each piece of lace in the mixture. Once they’re covered in the glue, fish them out, let the excess drip off, and then place them on a sheet of wax paper to dry. You can also use your fingers to get some of the excess glue off. Just pinch the lace between your fingers and pull the lace through the excess drips off. If you have some straight pins or safety pins, stick them through the lace and into the cardboard/foam. This will help your lace maintain its shape as it dries.
After a few hours, your lace should be dry and stiff. Remove the pins and pull the lace off the wax paper. (last picture above)
Now you can play around with your design, and how you want to arrange it on your hair comb. Once you have a design worked out, you can start attaching it to your hair comb. One of the flowers was the same width as the comb, so I kept things simple and just used the one lace flower. I started by knotting the thread around the comb, and then just started wrapping the thread around the comb and through the lace with my needle and thread. There’s really no right or wrong way to do this. You just want to make sure that the lace is secured to the comb, along its entire length. Once you get to the other end of the comb, just tie a knot in your thread.
I ended up making two different combs, and then also some bobby pins. Since I made these after I’d had my hair trial, I wasn’t sure which would look best with my hair style, so I gave myself options. I would recommend making a couple different combs to try with your wedding day hair style. You never know which design will look best until you try it!
