Butterflies Are Not Free

But they are almost ready to fly onto the costume. Spent the past hours beading, setting stones, and embellishing the butterfly appliqués with additional glitz. I glued them to a Flexifirm backing with Aleene's Super Fabric glue, turned over the edges and glued then pinned them down to dry as you can see in the first picture above. Flexifirm is a very thick interfacing something akin to craft plastic or styrene and can be heat shaped when I'm happy with the look.


In the close up you can see the stones I used to shape and trace the wings and body. I used AB faceted crystals in a medium amethyst and pale turquoise blue pillow beads on the wing halos, rim set AB crystals in two colors to compliment the silver and gray iron on studs that form the rest of the butterfly and then used silver lined rose violet rocailles to outline the top and bottom of the wings. The smaller butterflies have a modified version of the beads and stones.

I will do more embellishment, put a on beaded edge, and am trying to decide whether or not to use feather tips around the edging before I put on the back lining lining. I like the different finishes of the stones.