My beaded sash

My next project was my beaded sash for my wedding gown.  I had my dress custom made overseas.  While they did an excellent job on the construction of the dress and the fabrics... the rhinestone belt they put on it was horrid.  Ghastly.  PROM-ish.

I had little control of the dress after they finished it.  Before, the dress factory told me they'd make any changes I wanted them to make, but afterwards, they seemed really adamant about any of my wants and in the end, I gave in.   I told them to ship me the dress and I'll fix it myself!

And that, I did.

I was glad to see that taking off the ugly beaded belt didn't do any damage to the fabric on the dress. 

I saw this beaded belt on eBay go for $90:

And I thought, "I swear I've seen that as an applique."  And it is.  Here it is:

After playing around in photoshop to see how it'd work... I realized the tails were trimmed off and then the applique is rotated on its side and pieced together.  So I bought the supplies I needed (appliques ended up being the most costly... and then I wanted to kick myself for not checking Etsy first because a seller had the same appliques for about $15 cheaper total).  But oh well.

Ta-da!  My finished beaded sash.. next to the ugly one I'm not using and not sure what I'll use it for if I can recycle it for something else.

Cost to make: under $45.  Time to make: 1 week
- Satin fabric for sash: $2.70
- Appliques (5): $40.94

Money saved: at least $45