However, I don't really have the budget right now to just run out and get every cardigan my heart desires (I am known in my group of friends as the one who wears cardigans, so that would be a lot for me). Instead, I figured I'd try to recreate the look with a black cardigan I recently received as a hand-me-down from my friend Suzie. It's the only black cardi I have, though, so the goal was to recreate the look when I choose...as opposed to permanently. I think it will make more sense when you see how I accomplished the look.
I started with some left-over lace and black felt from two previous DIY projects (an earring holder and the batty napkin rings).Side note: I LOVE the military look. I've always loved it (and yes, I loved Alanis Morrissette before she became popular too...look where that got me) :) I have an army green jacket from 2003 that I still wear, I have an army green cargo skirt that was handed down from my sister in high school, which I just recently had to part with due to the fact that I no longer fit in it. Obvi. Anyway, back to the point: I decided this would be a great way to incorporate more military chic into a work outfit. So, lace epaulettes it is!
To start, I cut out a rectangle of felt 2x4". I wanted to use the felt as the base for the epaulettes. It would give some structure and a place to hide whatever material I was going to use to attach them to my black cardigan. Also, I have a fear of burning myself with the hot glue and was imagining ten blister-covered fingers if I tried to just hot glue the edges of the lace without something in between those two layers. That's just scurry.
Once I got the rectangle cut out, I folded the felt in half and chopped off the edges of just the top side. This gave me the perfect epaulette shape. Perrrrfect (sorry, I'm a bigger dork tonight than normal). Now that I had one felt shape ready to go, I merely just used it as a pattern to trace on another scrap of felt. Now, I'm set with one epaulette for each shoulder.
Once I got the rectangle cut out, I folded the felt in half and chopped off the edges of just the top side. This gave me the perfect epaulette shape. Perrrrfect (sorry, I'm a bigger dork tonight than normal). Now that I had one felt shape ready to go, I merely just used it as a pattern to trace on another scrap of felt. Now, I'm set with one epaulette for each shoulder. 
The best way I figured to make this work was to just place each piece of felt onto the lace and eye about a quarter-inch boarder around the edge. One thing that I found out was that even though the bottom of my felt was lined up with the bottom of the lace, this didn't necessarily mean that the pattern on the lace was straight. So, take my advise to make sure that if your lace has a pattern, you match THAT and not the edges. (This will save you the headache of trying to match up the pattern with very little excess to work with. Also, I might recommend more excess lace around the edge. I was on the verge of too little lace, which made it that much scarier to work with the hot glue.)
Once you have the felt lined up with the pattern on the lace, put a thin bead of glue around the edge of one side of the felt. Fold over the lace and secure into the glue. I used a Pepsi bottle cap as a makeshift thimble to push the lace to further ensure that I wouldn't burn my fingertip. Paranoid, I know. I chose not to work around the epaulette, but instead glued one side and then it's opposite side. This helped to keep the lace from moving around and to make sure there was no excess lace bubbled once all edges had been glued in place.After I had glued all of the edges down, I trimmed triangles of lace where excess stuck up at the corners. It's a bit like mitering the corners. Dab a bit more glue in the corners to secure the loose edges of lace, and you're done!
The result:
I secured them on the shoulders of my cardi with one pin under each epaulette. I played around a bit with the placement, deciding to put them a bit further on the front instead of the seams of my shoulders. This helped them stay flat, which also sort of held them in place a bit since the bumpy, dried glue grabbed the pelt of my semi-fuzzy sweater. Next time I might use two pins to keep them in place better. I also might try them on the edges of a jacket pocket (maybe aforementioned army-green jacket?). Anyway, what do you think? It's a bit fashion forward for my usual style, but I think it's just subtle enough to not look like a costume. Justin called me a captain on the way into work, and he was the only one who commented on it...not sure what that says or doesn't say, but hey, who cares, right? It was the journey not the destination!
PS. You caught me in my office bathroom taking photos of my "new" cardi. Hope you don't mind ;)
The result:I secured them on the shoulders of my cardi with one pin under each epaulette. I played around a bit with the placement, deciding to put them a bit further on the front instead of the seams of my shoulders. This helped them stay flat, which also sort of held them in place a bit since the bumpy, dried glue grabbed the pelt of my semi-fuzzy sweater. Next time I might use two pins to keep them in place better. I also might try them on the edges of a jacket pocket (maybe aforementioned army-green jacket?). Anyway, what do you think? It's a bit fashion forward for my usual style, but I think it's just subtle enough to not look like a costume. Justin called me a captain on the way into work, and he was the only one who commented on it...not sure what that says or doesn't say, but hey, who cares, right? It was the journey not the destination! PS. You caught me in my office bathroom taking photos of my "new" cardi. Hope you don't mind ;) Photos courtesy of dELiAs and me.
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