A couple of weekends ago my husband and I took our niece to the Texas Renaissance Festival. It was very fun. We camped on the grounds and I made up costumes or "garb" for us to wear. I knew it would be warm, but didn't factor in the humidity.
I would take 100 degrees in dry heat over humidity any day of the week. You just feel like you are melting. I should have gone as a witch. I'm sure my husband thought I was one.
Upon entering the gates of the festival I had a panic attack. It never occurred to me that I suffered from such attacks but thinking back I obviously do. The combination of dozens of people surrounding me and being extremely hot at 9 o'clock in the morning had me in a quiet fit. I ended up cutting in line. I mean, it was more like a swarm than a line, but I am sure people noticed me shamelessly squeezing my way to the front. I didn't care. I just needed to sit down for a second so I could breathe and cool off.
Once I got in the gates I immediately found a place to sit as my husband and niece ran off to get me something cold to drink. If you follow my videos on Youtube ( www.youtube.com/projecthousewife)
you can see a clip in my Renaissance video of just watching people come into the fair. I figured while I calmed down I could make use of the time.
Once I was back up and walking around, I made it my mission to find a hand fan. While we cruised around the shops looking at various swords and costumes, and other fantastic items that one can only find at a ren fest, I saw several people fanning themselves. I finally found a pirate shop selling fans, which now as I sit here typing, I can't remember where I put.
One thing I noticed was several people fanning themselves with fans made of feathers. It looked so awesome. I loved the idea. I knew if I found one at a shop it would cost much more than I was willing to spend. So I decided that when I got home I would set out to make one of my own.
I figured I would share with all you fine people out on the web as well, because my motto is, "If I can make it myself, then I'm gonna".
I generally just wing it when I make things. I went to Hobby Lobby and grabbed a bunch of stuff that I thought could work and just went nuts.
We are going to another Renaissance Festival in February and I decided to make a hot pink and black outfit to where. I realize that it is hardly historically accurate, but neither are the fairies and other mythical creatures that I see at the fair. Plus, Pink is my FAVORITE color.
Things you will need:
Sheet of felt
Hot glue gun with plenty of sticks (DON'T BURN YOURSELF - CAUTION)
Feathers
Floral wire
some meshy paper rope (I don't know what it's called)
First thing you are going to do is take the floral wire and create a basic shape. I shaped the fan part very simply, and it doesn't have to be too big because it's just a base. I then worked the wire into a stem and then at the end is just a loop. This will make it easy to tie to a belt when I take it to a festival.
I then took the meshy paper rope stuff, and unwound it, so that it was more like ribbon than rope and just basically wrapped it around the wire. This helped hide the wire but it also helped when it came to gluing on the feathers.
Next you glue on the feathers. I chose feathers that had a natural curve to them and didn't look eaten up because several feathers didn't look good. I glued the feathers so that they curved in on the fan and weren't straying everywhere.
I had three colors, black, light pink, and hot pink so I layered the colors. You can display yours however you like though.
On one side of the fan I cut out a piece of felt to lay over the feathers to hide all the little end parts, and to solidify their place on the fan. On the other side, which I consider the front, I placed a pre-made feathered felt piece.
And here is the finished piece.
This fan works really well and I really love it. The only thing I would add to this is a stiff stick to connect the fan part to the stem underneath the paper. The wire bends when I fan and I have to hold it a certain way. I don't think this will last more than one weekend of fanning without it.
Never again will I go to a festival and be hot! Huzzah!
Check out my website at www.projecthousewife.com for more cool stuff.
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