Creating Marie, Part 3

Alright, this is the last post I'll make about the Marie Antoinette party. I just wanted you guys to see my favorite part...the silver boat centerpiece:



This is what I was working on at the last minute before the party. I already had vases filled with feathers and golden leaves for centerpieces but then I found this wooden pirate ship at the craft store and knew it would make the perfect centerpiece:



Kirsten Dunst wears a ship in her hair during one of the scenes in the movie and I'd looked for one for months to no avail. Then I found this ship by accident! It was from a craft kit but they were out of the kits so I bought the display model. The first thing I did when I got home was cut off the wooden sails. Then I wiped off the dust and glued some of the pieces together to make it sturdier.

Then I painted the whole thing with two coats of silver acrylic. The base is hard to see but I used a glass pie-plate, turned upside down. I hot-glued some scrap fabric to the plate and then glued sprigs of golden leaves and apples (that I'd painted earlier in the month) to the fabric. Then I tucked in some extra curly ostrich feathers.



The ship came with a little stand that went in amongst the leaves and feathers. I was planning to make paper sails but as this was all done at the last minute and I didn't actually feel like making paper sails, I looked around for other options.

As you can see, I decided to girly the thing up even more by making satin ribbon sails. Fun, right?



And as a finishing touch, I tucked in some fabric flowers along the deck. I tried to keep the ship as non-piratey as possible since it's supposed to be an armada type ship. I really like how it turned out and Laura liked it too. I definitely think it was worth a little last minute stress.

And that's it! I have lots of projects to work on this week including sewing table runners for Laura's wedding and the Pay it Forward prizes. I'm really excited to get reacquainted with my sewing machine. It's been a long time!