Making A Royal Order

Hello sweet friends! I hope your week is starting out wonderfully. This past weekend I attended a formal dinner held by the Dallas Fort Worth Costumers Guild. By Royal command the wearing of tiara’s and gems to the black tie Coronation Dinner was greatly encouraged. My 1830s dress, inspired by Queen Victoria, had never been worn to a public event so I opted not to make anything new. However a bit of bling was needed so I set out in Making A Royal Order.

A Royal Order

So what is A Royal Order?

 King George IV created the first Royal Family Order. The honor was given to female members of the royal family. Prior to this women had worn miniature portraits of the monarch, but King George standardized the practice. His miniature portrait was painted by Henry Bone. It was based on this famous painting of the king by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The portrait is surrounded by jewels and topped by a crown. 

Queen Victoria opted to create a Royal Order that featured both her and Albert. It was created in 1862 a year after his passing. The dual cameo silhouette portrait was made in Rome by Tommaso Saulini. It was based on the 1851 Great Exhibition medal designed by William Wyon.

The cameo was set by Garrard’s, the royal jeweler, in a neo-Tudor setting. It features a silver-gilt mount with frame of small diamonds encircled by twenty-one large brilliants. The order is surmounted by a royal crown studded with tiny diamonds, rubies and emeralds with a red enamel cap. It is secured to the white moiré ribbon with a diamond-set suspension loop.

Queen Alexandra of Denmark, then Princess of Wales, is shown wearing the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert. This was a formal portrait taken at the wedding of her daughter, Princess Louise, in 1889. She also pinned another brooch, a diamond horseshoe, to the order’s ribbon as well. I have a similar horse brooch and will be adding it to my order in the future. 

Changing Colors

King Edward VII, Queen Victoria’s son, created his own Royal Family Order during his reign (1901-1910). The portrait is attributed to Robert Henderson, a miniaturist who worked for Dickinson and Foster. The portrait is surrounded by gemstones and topped with a gem-encrusted crown. His order was hung from a red and blue striped ribbon with yellow accents which was very similar to the King’s racing colors.

The King’s daughter, Princess Victoria, wore her father’s Royal Family Order (as well as the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert) at the wedding of Princess Margaret of Connaught and Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor in June 1905. Like her mother, Queen Alexandra, she has pinned a diamond horseshoe brooch near her order badges and ribbons.

King George V’s Royal Family Order, featured a miniature portrait of the monarch in his naval uniform. It hangs on a pale blue ribbon.

In 1936 the new Queen Elizabeth wore her late father-in-law’s Royal Family Order. She’s also wearing Queen Mary’s Diamond Fringe Tiara. You may recall her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, wore this tiara on her wedding day and it famously snapped in two.

King George VI’s Royal Family Order was suspended from a pale pink ribbon.  The jeweler Garrard assisted with the design of the badge.

Several Orders

Queen Elizabeth II often wore the Orders of both her grandfather and father. 

Portrait of the Queen taken in May 1956 by Dorothy Wilding. 

Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Family Order features a miniature portrait of the monarch. It is based on this photograph, taken on April 15, 1952, by Dorothy Wilding.

The portrait is topped by a jeweled crown and suspended from a pale yellow ribbon.

This incredible portrait of the Queen Mum, painted in 1986 by Richard Stone, shows her wearing the orders of her husband and her daughter.

A New Order

The orders made before 2017 featured portraits hand-painted on ivory. Since 2017, they thankfully have been painted on glass. This was reportedly at the request of the then Duke of Cambridge, who is now the new Prince of Wales.

His mother, the late Princess Diana, wore the QEII Order to a banquet in Australia on April 11, 1983.

The Orders are given to thank family members for their service to the crown.  The late Princess of Wales had the honor taken away when she divorced Prince Charles in 1996. However, it was rumored that she was buried with the brooch pinned on to signify her former status. 

Catherine, the new Princess of Wales, was also awarded the Queen Elizabeth II order. 

The Order is only worn at formal events and for formal portraiture. Both King George VI and Elizabeth II had their Orders created in time for their coronations.

Here you see the then Princess Elizabeth wearing her grandfathers order, as well as her fathers order, at his coronation on May 12, 1937.

However, it appears that the new King Charles either did not follow suit or asked out of respect and honor to his mother that female family members wear only her Order to the first state banquet held after he ascended the throne. 

But there is no doubt that the new Princess of Wales will soon add a new Order, featuring her father in law the King, to her ensembles in the future. 

Other Orders

Royal families from other countries also have various Orders. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden wears the King Carl Gustaf’s Portrait Brooch.

Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark wearing the Royal Family Order of her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe.

Making A Royal Order

For this project I looked in the jewelry making section of Hobby Lobby, Joann and Michaels for a bejeweled cameo setting and came up empty handed. I have since learned that the sewing areas contain oval rhinestone buckle and button options that could be altered. 

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I used a piece of vintage moiré ribbon as my backing. As it was a polyester ribbon I was unable to fray the edges as shown on the orders above. So I used pinking shears to trim the edges.

If you prefer to have frayed edges you will need to select a cotton, silk or rayon based ribbon. 

The Tutorial

I loosely followed this great sash tutorial for my ribbon bow.

As I was making a smaller ribbon brooch I used the following measurements:

Cut two pieces of ribbon measuring 6 1/2 inches (16.51 cm)

Fold each piece of ribbon that lap over each other about 1/2″ (1.27cm) in the back.

Sew each rectangle ribbon in the center to secure it closed. 

Then place the two folded ribbon rectangles one on top of the other. Make sure that the rathe top edges are hidden in the center. Sew the two ribbon rectangles together in the center. 

Top with a piece of ribbon that measures 4 1/2″ (11.43 cm). For my ribbon, each edge was pinked with pinking shears. Secure it with a few stitches.

Take a 2 1/2 ” x  1′ (6.35 x 2.54 cm) strip of ribbon and fold it lengthwise and make a very narrow hem along the edge. You are essentially making a tube. Flip it inside out. I used a safety pin on one end to turn it. 

Gather up your 3 layer rectangle in the center. Wrap the ribbon tube around the center of the 3 layer ribbon over the top of the gathering stitches.  Stitch securely closed in the back. 

Cut one piece of ribbon 4″ (10.16 cm) long and another piece of ribbon 3″ (7.62 cm). 

Stack the ribbons on top of one another. Then attach it to the backside of the bow. Make sure to hide your stitches so they cannot be seen on the front of the bow. 

Sew on a pin back. Mine measures 1 1/2″ (3.81 cm) long.

The back of the ribbon will not be pretty. 

Front of the Order

As I could not find a bejeweled cameo settings I opted to just pin on an antique brooch given to me by dear Sweet T. 

It was then topped by a wee crown I had in my stash. I hid my stitches with three very tiny pearls. 

There were a few other fabulous orders worn to the dinner by members. This is dear Miss Helen looking radiant with her order. 

A fabulous group photo by our wonderful member Beth. Alas you cannot see the Royal Order on my left shoulder but know it is there. 

You can watch a short video that I made of the event HERE. 

I do plan on making a few more orders in the future. They are a bit addicting. 

See you Thursday!

Laura

Disclosure: affiliate links are used in this post.