How would I wear it? Feathered Peplum Belt...I think yes!

So you all know I love runway fashions! And I love to figure out ways to wear the runway fashions in a way that is toned down for "real life." So I have a new look for you today. I have posted about peplum's before and I'll do it again. I love this look!! And I might wear it out, LOL!! I saw this full feathered dress from a Fall collection I found in Harper's Bazaar and wondered how I could pull it off. Now a full feathered dress is a little much for "real life", works great on the runway, but how could I pull it off at church? Got me thinking. I'm pretty sure that I used the same exact kind of feathers as the ones used in the full feather Lanvin dress, but I went for a Feathered Peplum belt instead of full feathers. And I love the way it turned out! I wore it to church yesterday. I can always tell right away how I did when people say "where did you get that?" Then I know I scored! I got lots of compliments on it so I thought I would share what I did. The feathers I already had from making many a feathered accessories over the past 2 years. These particular feathers come already sewn together at the top and so this belt went together really easily! I would have preferred the look to be real leather (which leather pieces are also in this Fall season), but I didn't have any of that. I did however have some fake stuff (from Walmart!) that ended up looking pretty great. I measured my waist and cut the feathers to connect perfectly end to end around me. Then I cut the fake leather looking fabric, I left about 2-3" on each side so that I could attach the hook/eye type closure to the fake leather in the back of the belt. It took just maybe a 1/2 hour to make, but gives me one more look to go with my black pencil skirt! (And I didn't buy a thing.) I love that! One of my favorite things to do is find things I can make out of raw materials I already have. Oh...and I was slightly worried about how the feathers would hold up in "real life" since my "real life" includes my 3 children, one of whom is 18 months old and I carry around a lot. And I'm in the Primary at my church (=lots of small children to wrangle.) But I'm happy to say the feathers looked just as good when I got home as when I left the house. Although my daughter did try to pet my feathers frequently!

Here is a pic of the dress that inspired my Feathered Peplum Belt:

Photo from Harper's Bazaar link: Link to Harper's Bazaar

Lanvin Full Feather Dress

Here is mine~!

Me in my Feathered Peplum Belt. My photography is not as good as the picture above, but the feathers are the same kind/color. They are black, but shine a beautiful green when the light hits it!

Here's how I did it:

Cut a piece of feathers that fits your waist perfectly, touching at the back. Then cut a piece of leather/fake leather about 2-3 inches longer than the feathers on both sides.

Using a hot glue gun I glued the leather piece to the feathers on the front first (this is the view from the back side, glued)
Then I folded the leather piece over and glued it down to the feathers covering the white threads and tops of feathers, so they are enclosed in the leather piece.

Shows me gluing down the leather piece. (By the way I'm wearing my favorite cobalt blue nail polish, don't mind the chipped mani!)

This is what I hold it on with, a large hook/eye attachment in the back. Trimmed the leather piece to fit my waist perfectly having it overlap to allow for the hook/eye closure as seen here.