Stiffened Organza Fabric Vase

Hello and Welcome to the 'Do It Over' Designers Blog Hop!!  In case you haven't heard, the "Do It Over Designers" is a group of creative bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/ DIY, hosted by Anne @The Apple Street Cottage. It happens the 4th Saturday of every other month and it's all about taking something old and/or unused and 'doing it over' into something new.

One of my favorite past times is looking online at high-end stores for DIY craft  inspirations! High-end stores often showcase craftable ideas that can be duplicated or imitated at a much, much lower cost.  Many expensive items and or ideas can often use thrifted, recyclable, or lower cost items transformed with affordable materials. I especially love vases made from unexpected recyclable items. I've made a few throughout my crafting years!

I fell in love with the vase pictured below found at Neiman Marcus! Especially the colors and flowers! It's crystal and made by the Jean Daum dynasty, selling for over thirty one thousand dollars! It's pretty spectacular in height, too, standing at an amazing 30" tall with a 29" diameter! It is one of many on the site created by the Daum dynasty. I love this one because, you know, it has purple hues in it!!!!!

When I look at this vase as a crafter, I imagine a smaller version and re-creation or "Do Over" of one using inexpensive stiffened organza fabric in the shape of a vase with flowers surrounding the top and body. Why use organza, you ask?  A dear, dear friend of mine was once a costume designer and seamstress many years ago for a local playhouse. She knew I loved purple so when she came across a small piece of purple organza fabric leftover from a costume, she gave it to me. It was really beautiful and I had no idea what I would do with it at the time but I kept it in my stash - and still cherish it very much to this day since she is no longer with us! 

So this is what I came up with using the organza fabric. To create a DIY stiffened organza fabric vase. For this, you'll need fabric stiffener and an old vase (plastic container) or other recyclable objects (paper mache cone tree) to use as a stand. The process involves saturating the organza with a stiffening solution, draping it over the stand, while shaping it and then letting it dry completely to hold its shape. Resulting in a soft, flowing look of fabric in a translucent dimensional vase that holds its shape. 

Materials:

• Organza fabric
• Beacon Stiffen Stuff Fabric Stiffening Spray
• Clear plastic vase shape container for a stand (16"x4")
• Paper mache cone tree (23"x5.75")
• Plastic wrap
• Plastic trash bag/ gloves
• Flower images
• Parchment paper
• Scissors/pins
• Fabric glue

Disclosure I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! Plus Google Adsense provides a platform for me to monetize my content by hosting ads from Google's network of advertisers. The money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

How To:

First, cover work surface table with an open plastic trash bag. Then place the plastic container over the paper mache cone tree to make the stand a bit taller and for the fabric to hang in folds and off the table. 

 

Next, wrap the stand completely in plastic wrap. This will prevent the fabric from sticking to the stand and make it easy to remove once it's dry.

Before I go any further, I must say that I tried a couple of different ways to stiffen the organza. First, I used Aleene's Fabric Stiffener & Draping Liquid. The product got good reviews and I love other Aleene products! I followed the directions but the fabric didn't dry clear. I could see product stains. I washed what I could out and then tried painting the stiffener on with a brush and that didn't work either. The fabric did not dry clear. I also tried Mod Podge and that wasn't stiff enough and also left stains.

  

Luckily, I found a half used bottle of Beacon Stiffen Stuff Fabric Stiffening Spray in my stash and tried that. And thank goodness, it worked after spraying on several coats and letting it dry between coats.

So I draped the stand with the organza fabric and saturated the fabric using the Beacon spray-on stiffening solution until it was completely saturated. 

Then I arranged the fabric into soft drapes, and folds and let dry. 

I had to spray it several times and let dry each time to get the fabric stiff enough to hold a vase shape.

While the fabric was drying from being sprayed with fabric stiffener, I found a flower image in two different sizes that I've used before to cut out for embellishing the vase. I folded the organza several times and then pinned the images on the fabric and .  .  .

cut out each one.

Next, I separated the organza flower designs and placed them on sheets of parchment paper to spray on fabric stiffener and let dry overnight.

I like that this flower design is similar to the small ones on the fabric.

Once the flower embellishments were dry I tried arranging one group together into a flower to see how it would work glued on the vase.

So far, so good!

Now to arrange more flower embellishments together!

Here's a sample of them:

   After gluing on the organza flowers around the fabric vase I ended up with this:  

I might have gotten carried away with adding flowers.

Personally, I should have stopped with the fabric vase pictured below:

There are flowers already on the fabric and I like the lines of this one better. 

What do you think? 

Before you leave, don't forget this is a blog hop and the team has some amazing upcycle/recycle/do-it-over projects to share with you.

Be sure to visit all of this month's creative projects by the 

 "Do It Over Designers"  listed below:

Sum of Their Stories

Color Me Thrifty

Vintage Style Gal

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Modern on Monticello

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Unique Creations by Anita