Sunday School Craft - Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) Crowns and Scepters

I was searching for a Queen Esther craft and didn't really like any that I saw, necessarily, so I drove to Dollar Tree to get some inspiration.

I found. . .

bulletin board borders (you may recognize from my last post):

Staplers with staples:

Shiny stickers, loose glitter, and glitter glue. (Or whatever you want to decorate...crayons, paint, whatever.) 

Two packs of straws (for boys and girls).

Starting with the "scepters," all you have to do is decorate the straw attachment thingie (don't know what it's called).

Then, decorate your crowns however you want. (I've included the verse template at the end of this post.)

Then, once the crowns are dry, staple them in the back.

I went through our craft cupboard at church and found some more stickers and embellishments.

At the last second, I found some sparkly pipe cleaners, so I wrapped that around the scepter (which is fitting since the verse talks about a "gold scepter." I'm such a purist.) If your kids are old enough, you can pair them up boy with girl and have them act out the verse. 

Verse:

The End!

Dolce and Gabbana Inspired - Red Lace 3/4 Sleeves Tailored Dress

Dolce and Gabbana is going with a Catholic/Byzantine theme this fall and winter. The show started off with dresses printed in mosaics with motifs of saints and priests. All the women wore little gold crowns and crucifix jewelry. The show ended with the flood of Cardinal red lace pictured below. Several of the dresses caught my attention. 

(When I found 4 1/2 yards of red lace and a red cotton bed sheet at the thrift store, I knew what I had to be done!)

Here is a Dolce and Gabbana advertisement in Vogue for September 2013. Notice how the dresses have red material behind the red lace. That's the look I was going for. 

This is the cut and style of dress that caught my attention. This one is kinda see-through, though.

Here is a close-up of the same dress. I used this picture to figure out the sleeves.

Notice the bodice. The flowers are symmetrical and placed above the breasts (instead of on them, which would be distasteful). I knew that symmetry and placement were important, so I tried to keep them as I was cutting and darting. If you can't see what I'm talking about, scroll to the next picture.

I circled the flowers I was talking about.

Here is my dress. I didn't iron it because I don't think you are supposed to iron lace. I will steam it before I wear it, though.

See the symmetrical flowers??? That wasn't easy. That's why I'm making you look at them!

I also got the sleeves as symmetrical as possible. See the flower right on the ball of the shoulder?

It's like that on the other one too.

I don't know what the back of the original dress looks like, but I know on Project Runway they say that if the front of your dress is high, then make the back a little lower and vice versa. If they are both high it looks "Madame" and if they are both low, it looks trashy.

More symmetry in the back--notice the flower symmetry. Oh, I forgot I was going to put false buttons on the back. I was too excited to post it! I will have to post and update later. I also kinda haven't decided if I want to take another couple inches off the bottom, because I'm kinda short. I'll definitely post an update at some point.

This is a picture using the flash. I put a cross necklace with it as a nod to the runway show.

No flash.

The End!