DIY Project: Caketopper

I'm hoping that I don't get angry e-mails for this post. I couldn't afford the beautiful Ann Woods caketoppers. I also was looking for a way to incorporate fabric from my mother's wedding dress into the ceremony. I have never in my life seen an Ann Woods bird in person. I have never handled one, nor seen a pattern.

That being said, I made the female bird from fabric from my mother's wedding dress. I had to bleach parts of it because it was so yellowed. It was quite challenging considering how frayed it was. I practiced first with muslin and made a series of patterns that after 10 or so iterations began to look somewhat "bird like." The beak is the bottom of a golf tee and the legs are wire covered with paper-mache and then glitter. I think I had to make about 10 to get 4 that weren't too lumpy looking. I ended up hot-gluing the legs to the stuffed body and then to the base for stability. I added lavender and a key as an after-thought to try to tie it together with the rest of the wedding.