Home
Food
Quick and gorgeous desserts

Healthy recipe collection

Cook it now! January ingredients and recipes
Diet & wellbeing
50 recipes for the 5:2 diet

Easy stomach exercises for fab abs

Super-healthy smoothie supplements

Top 10 detox foods
Fashion & beauty
Winter skincare: nourishing face masks

On-trend nail polish: favourite shades

Sensuous scents: our pick of the best new season perfumes

Overnight replenishment: top night creams
Homes
Brilliant bathroom tile combinations

Stylish shower curtains

Luxurious living room chairs

Top towel sets

The best portable heaters
Craft
Get organised: create a home office area

Trendy tea cosies to knit and sew

Get organised: stylish storage to make

Technique of the week: how to winter-prune
Country & travel
The USA's unmissable sights

How to drive safely in floods, fog, high winds...

Check which countries use the euro

Train delayed? Get a refund
Community
See us on Pinterest

Join us on Facebook
Shop
Book club

Make a fascinator

Add a glamorous touch to a special occasion with a 1950s-style fascinator

Back

More patterns

Back

Add a glamorous edge to your occasion wear by making your own 1950s-style floral fascinator. Here's how...

You will need:

● Scissors
● Sewing cotton
● Sewing needles
● Teardrop-shaped fascinator base
● 50cm x 30cm rectangle veil netting
● Vintage brooches, pretty buttons, beads or mini flowers to use as flower centres or for additional decoration
● 1m length of ribbon for each flower. For different-sized flowers, vary the width of the ribbon

Items available from MacCulloch & Wallis (020 7629 0311) and John Lewis.

Step 1

To make a small birdcage veil, sew running stitch through the holes along three edges of the netting, leaving one long edge free. Pull the stitches taut as you go to gather the netting. Sew the gathered edges in a bunch on to the top of the fascinator base at its widest, thickest part, arranging the veil as you would like it to fall over your face.

Step 2

To make the flowers, sew running stitch along the short end of each ribbon, then continue to stitch along the long edge, pulling the thread and gathering the ribbon as you go. The ribbon will naturally curl into a spiral that you can shape into a flower as you sew.

When you reach the end of the long edge, carry on up the second short end and stitch make a few stitches at the base of the flower to hold it together.

Step 3

Select your flower centres and sew one on to the middle of each flower.

Step 4

Arrange flowers on top of the fascinator base, sewing each one on securely with a few stitches through the base. Add extra buttons or decorations, if you like.

Step 5

Position the comb on the underside of the base at the thickest, widest point and as close to the edge as possible. Sew the top of the comb to the base in at least three places to ensure it's secure - once at each end of the comb and once in the centre.

Step 6

To wear your fascinator, push the comb into your hair on a slant at one side of your head, with the widest part of the base pointing towards your crown. Pull the netting down over one eye and fluff up your hair around the fascinator.