Making (fake) Cotton Candy

With a Carnival theme for the July wedding, the Bride-to-Be wants her Bridesmaids to carry Cotton Candy bouquets. While real cotton candy would have been the simplest solution, it wouldn't have been practical. There was a good chance that by the end of the ceremony (remember! it will be  July!), the cotton candy would have begun to melt. And what a mess that would be!
So I undertook the task of learning how to make fake Cotton Candy. I went to the Web to see what I could find, unfortunately it wasn't much. The instructions/videos that I found all utilized cotton balls - the end result was a tad bit more 'rustic' than I cared for. So I dug a bit deeper and discovered some basic info on a HALLOWEEN FORUM ! Bless those who love to HAUNT their homes for HALLOWEEN!

I decided to use fiberfill sheets used for quilts.

The fiberfill sheet would hold together better than regular fiberfill that a person would use in stuffing a doll. And I could cut the sheet to the width I wanted.

I decided to quarter the sheet of fiberfill. I then separated that quarter section into layers. This would give me a lighter and airier look.  

 

Real cotton candy is wrapped around itself with a paper cone at the center. I needed to use something at the core to give the many layers of fiberfill support. So I made a cone out of a sheet of paper and then taped the edge of a fiberfill layer to the cone. (Because this was just a 'prototype' I didn't use any adhesives when putting this all together.)

Next, I wrapped the fiberfill sheets around the cone making adjustments as I went so that the finished product had the same shape as real cotton candy.

Once I was satisfied with the look, I made another cone from heavier brown paper and placed the cotton candy into the second cone.
Here is the finished product.....

The Bride was pleased, but the 'cotton candy' had to be colored. Check out tomorrow's post about my dye job.