Royal Family Orders Round 2

Right!!  Because I can't just let things go and I am constantly attempting to improve upon something I have made in the past (last year's Royal Orders tutorial and worn), I decided earlier in February to make new and improved Royal Orders for 2015.  I also wanted to make a set for my Mama and teach a little workshop for the ladies that belong to We Wear History.  To that end, I had been revisiting my Royal Family Orders Pinterest board and even started a new Victoria and Albert Orders board.  

Yes, I know that I am a little OCD with my obsession of all things Royal families...I do apologize.  BUT!!!  I just had to share with you all the fun things I discovered!!!  That's what this blog is all about to me.  If I find something, I LOVE to share it so that you can make your own sparklies!!  Also, I admit whole heartedly that I am a total and complete MAGPIE!!!! 

Ok...on to the new orders, sparklies, discoveries and fun things!!

My new suite of Royal Orders

Left to Right:

The Queen Madeline Order (She was my Great-Great-Aunt) 

The Tsar Gregory Family Order (He's my husband!)

The Queen Maud Family Order

The Elizabeth I of Russia Family Order

Queen Madeline Family Order

Badge of the Order of Victoria and Albert (first class)
Source:  Royal Collection Trust

My Badge Ribbon.  I chose to name her after my Great-Grandma's sister, Madeline.  I found the cameo at a local antiques store and promptly headed to Hobby Lobby to find a crystal surround to put her in!

Huzzah and away!!!  The pearl cabochon was the perfect size for my cameo!  It was so super crazy  how perfect the fit was!!!

I went home and popped the cabochon out with my seam ripper, and glued in the cameo.

For the crown, I found this lovely charm at Hobby Lobby.  The original Order has what looks like red enamel behind the crown, so I cut some burgundy silk to size and glued that to the back.

For the crystal "arch" going over the bow center, I cut apart the arched parts of the above crown.  I know...it's a perfectly good crown piece, but I had already used the good part on a previous order.

I already had some wonderful ivory moire ribbon so just made a bow and some tails.  The tails I unravelled like the original and, voila!!!  Completed order!!!

One Pendant....Three looks!!!

Ok, so now the exciting part!!!  I had been perusing the orders Pinterest page and saw one that I had pinned a while back but had totally forgotten all about.  I do that a lot...just ask my wonderful friend Kat!!  Anyhoo, I had been looking at it and thinking how gorgeous it was.  I noticed that the cabochon was beveled and surrounded by small diamonds.  "How utterly incredible this is", I thought.  I found myself that same day at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry aisle looking for the pieces for my Madeline Order and noticed an interesting piece of jewelry findings.  I was staring at it and wondering how I could use it in my costuming.  Then it hit me like a Mac truck.  OHMYGOODHEAVENS!!!!  THAT CABOCHON HAS A BEVELED EDGE AND LOOK!!!!  THERE ARE TINY CRYSTALS AROUND THE EDGE!!!  JUST LIKE THE ORDER I WAS LOOKING AT!!

OH MY GIDDY AUNT!!!

I ripped my phone out of my back pocket, went to Pinterest and located the image I was thinking of.  There it was.  So incredibly beyone perfect as to be somewhat freaky.  I immediately grabbed the three remaining jewelry findings and quickly made my way to the front of the store to make my purchases.  I had to get home and start creating!!!

Below is the waaaaay fun jewelry finding that became my own Elizabeth I of Russia ribbon.

(For the next three orders, I used the Market Fair jewelry finding for the base.)

What a simple little thing that made me giddy with excitement!!!

I went home and used my seam ripper to pop the glass cabochon out of the surrounding.

Elizabeth I of Russia Order

The original Elizabeth ribbon order.  I found it on Pinterest and have looked in vain to find the source and any information on this.  Can't find any.  I Googled Elizabeth I of Russia and she looks very much like this lady, so I am going to go with the information that I read on Pinterest.

My Elizabeth Order

For the crown of the order, I used the top piece of this art-i-cake jewelry finding.

Another image of the art-i-cake finding.

A quick search on Google, gave me a copy right free image of the beautiful QEI of Russia...thank you Wikipedia!!  I had a length of yellow moire ribbon on hand so made up the bow like I invisioned the original to look like when it was new.

Queen Maud Family Order

Source:  Royal Collection Trust

Queen Maud is one of my very favorite Royals of old, so I thought it would be a fun thing to make an order with her lovely face on it!  It was hard finding a good image of her as I could only find one painting of her!!  So bizarre as she was Queen of Norway!  

My Queen Maud Order

I started with the Market Fair base and added an outer oval of larger crystals.

The outer oval of larger crystals started out as a perfect circle.  I very gently started...for lack of a better word...smashing the circle into an oval.

When I got the circle into the shape of an oval that I was satisfied with, it was too large to fit around the smaller setting, so I cut the top four crystals off the oval and it fit much better.  I really liked the look of one of the orders I had seen where the corwn was sitting on top of an inner ring of diamonds, so left an opening at the top of th oval.

To fill in the whole that was left by the crystal removal, I filled it in with a piece of a necklace that I took apart.  The ribbon I had left over from last year's Tsar Greg Order.  I again used an arch from the large crown from art-i-cake.

Tsar Gregory Family Order

Source:  Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist

For my Tsar Gregory Order, I wanted it to be a bit larger and fancier as this one would be in honor of my fabulous husband.  I really liked the top ribbon that Princess Alice of Teck is wearing.  The bow loops and tails are quite large and make quite a statement.  (Princess Alice is also one of my favorite royals of old!!!)

The Tsar Gregory Order.  Isn't he handsome!

I found this buckle at Hobby Lobby in the sewing department by the buttons.  I cut out the center bar and molded and bended and coaxed the shape of the buckle to fit around the glass cabochon!  It fit so snugly that it took very little glue to hold it in place!  Huzzah!!!

To top off the order, I used one of these buttons from Hobby Lobby again.  HL has a great selection of sparklies for Magpies like me!!!  I glued it to the top of the crystals and then sewed it to the light blue moire ribbon that I found at one of my favorite antiques stores in town!!!

For the crystla arch, I again used one of the arches from the art-i-cake crown.

My very lovely friend Kat of Madame Modiste blog has made a most wonderful Queen Alexandra Order and several wonderful Cipher ribbons that I hope she will share in the future...She found her own pendant/jewelry findings and removed the glass cabochon to insert a gorgeous image of Queen Alexandra.  It is so gorgeous!!!  

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to make an order or a jewelry piece that can be personalized for your costuming or everyday wardrobe!

Be Blessed my friends!  Have a great Sunday!

g

PS....thank you to the great ladies who went to Hobby Lobbies round the US to get me Market Fair cabochons so my ladies can make their own family orders!  You are all Rock Stars!!!

Addendum:  Finishing the Orders....

Ok, not really a finished part, but here you can see an arch that has been removed from the crown piece.  I simply use Super Glue to glue it to the ribbon.  You can also use necklace spacers (which I believe Kat is planning on using as they have great loops to sew them on).  I used some necklace spacers on my first orders, but I didn't like the way they ended up looking...if you want to see what I mean you can see it Here.

How I will finish the back of the Tsar Gregory order.  This is the old one, but I plan on doing the exact same thing once I find the metal sheets.  I simply cut an oval the same shape as the existing piece and since it was an adhesive backed piece of metal paper, it stuck quite nicely to the pendant.

"Metal" adhesive sheets.  I found these in the scrapbooking aisle at a local crafts store.

 

The Queen Maud and QEI of Russia Orders.  Happily, the backs of the original jewelry pieces were finished in a most lovely pattern, so I didn't have to put any adhesive metal paper on the back.  I finished off with a 1" pin with clasp.  For a lot of the sewing on of the metal pieces, I used a fine mono filament....or fine fishing line, whatever you have on hand!

1" pin backs.  Makes pinning to dresses quite easy!!

For all of the gluing together of the metal pieces I simply used super glue and gave everything a nice long while to cure.  Some of my costuming friends use B-6000.  I have never used it but I have heard really good reviews!  

Hope this helps!  If you have more questions, please ask!