How to Make a Lace Crown in the Microwave (With Pictures!)
In an effort to be a more engaged and engaging blogger, I am going to post some tutorials on how to make a few of your own easy costume pieces. I am generally pretty terrible at keeping up with blogging (my deep apologies and shout-out to my long-lost blog tasty-cakes.blogspot.com--it's been a pathetic two years). I am also terrible at remembering to take photos during projects, and once I remember to, I am usually about three-quarters of the way through and it doesn't even matter anyway because I'm not stopping now. BUT that doesn't mean I don't WANT to share with the world at large about how the costume sausage is made. So, here I am. Let's start by making a lace crown!
This is a super simple DIY that has been floating around the internet for a few years with a couple of different methods. This is basically the same item that you can find over at Maker, Baker, Glitter Shaker and Joyfolie Blog, but mine is purposed for grown-ups and theatre peoples. I have made a couple of changes that give it a more serious costuming edge.
Let's begin! First you will need your costuming ingredients:
-Measuring tape
-3/4 to one yard of crocheted lace that you think looks crown-ly
-Aleene's Stiffen Quik OR Liquid Starch (I bought some off Amazon--woohoo Prime!)
-Silver or Gold craft paint (or any metallic--bronze would be cool too)
-Scissors
-Posterboard
-a Microwave
*OPTIONAL BUT AWESOME (see bottom of tutorial):
- brighter gold or silver paint than main coat
- darker gold or silver paint than main coat
- very small paintbrush and small-ish sponge paintbrush
Step 1:
Measure your head where you want the crown to go. I wanted mine to fall right across my forehead for Medieval purposes.
Step 2:
Mark your head measurement and cut a piece (taller than your lace) of posterboard to fit, plus about an inch for overlap. Cut out this piece and tape it in a circle, stopping at your head measurement mark. Try it on, make sure you like it. Please keep in mind that since your lace will go on the outside of the posterboard, it may fit ever-so-slightly looser than your posterboard, so get a good fit.
Step 3:
Wrap your lovely lace around your posterboard template and overlap just a little bit. Cut it (If you got dagged lace like I did, and have an issue with your lace dags not lining up, DO NOT cut into the dags. I cut in between the dags and pinched it and taped it together in several other places to even out the spaces between to how I liked it. If you cut into the dags, it just looks like a ragged mess). I lightly taped the crown to the posterboard frame in a couple of places just to keep it in shape while I stiffened it, and I taped the overlapped ends on the bottom, specifically.
Step 4:
Saturate your lace with Stiffen Quik or Liquid Starch. Don't be shy! It really needs to soak in to give you something you can work with. I first did this project with Stiffen Quik and realized that Liquid Starch works just a bit faster. So if you're pressed for time, the Liquid Starch method might be better. You have to brush it on rather than spray it like Stiffen Quik, so in the end it may be a wash.
Step 5: Pop that sucker in the microwave for 30 seconds. I found that with my dagged lace, it was helpful to put it in upside down, because as the fabric warmed up the dags got wilt-y and fell over if it was right-side-up.
Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 until desired stiffness is acheived. After a couple of rounds, remove any tiny tape pieces holding the lace to the template. Tip: I have personally made this particular type of crown many times and have yet to get it really brittle. It has never had the strength of plastic, but it's not really needed. There will always be a bit of flexibility to it, and the larger your crown, the more flexible it will be. If you make a mini-crown, you can get it pretty solid, but it has more to do with the small circumference than the stiffening products. If you use craft paint, it will also lend to the strength and stiffness of the lace. This part of the project is also what takes the longest.
After the dags became rather stiff, I pulled them out away from the frame to give the crown a bit more Medievally shape and then continued with the saturation-microwavation cycle.
Step 7: Time to paint it. I used gold craft paint but you can also spray paint this guy for a quicker result. After your crown has cooled completely from the microwave and LEAVING THE CROWN ON THE POSTERBOARD, paint the outside and allow to dry. You may do the bonus steps at the bottom if desired before moving on to the next step.
Step 8: If the crown sticks to the posterboard, which it will, CAREFULLY remove it using a butter knife or a palette knife. You can keep it from sticking by coating the posterboard with packing tape before beginning the whole process, but the whole sticking thing doesn't really bother me, so I don't bother with the tape. Paint the inside of the crown and let dry.
*The following is a "Sprinkles on Top" addition to your final product. These steps are not necessary for a complete crown, but they are necessary for TOTAL AWESOMENESS. :)
After giving it a good initial coat, I decided it needed a bit of depth and decided to give it some bright gold highlights and copper lowlights. Here is where the rubber meets the road in theatrical costuming. This is the kind of stuff that makes it go from "Cool crown!" to "Is that real metal?!"
Using a very small paintbrush, paint your darker metal color very lightly into the grooves and depressions on your main lace design. I used a copper color.
After this dries, take a sponge paintbrush with a very small amount of bright metal color and lightly brush the raised parts of your main lace design and crown band. I used bright gold.
Dont bother trying to get paint in every single nook and cranny. Just general coverage of raised and lowered areas, to give the illusion of depth and define some of the designs featured on your lace. Allow to dry completely before your coronation (shouldn't take long, you'll be king or queen in no time!).
FINISHED CROWN. SO MEDIEVAL. VERY RENAISSANCE.
If you have any questions or feedback for me on my tutorial, shoot me a message via my contact page!
Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!
Abby
