Project 239: A bespoke bridal tote

A few weeks ago my friend Palo got married and I was so happy to be a bridesmaid and be a part of the process. She had asked us to have a bag of some sort to carry emergency supplies in and we came up with this idea of making a tote bag in their wedding color to use for the occasion.

I had a royal blue bag printed with their name and wedding date on it - only to realise when I received it that I had ordered the wrong date! OOPS. So I got crafty and decided to patch over it.

First, I cut a strip of pink and blue fabric from my stash as the main patch over the date. I have a very limited fabric supply so I was so pleased that this not only worked but was a scrap from a bigger piece the bride had given me for a previous project. I folded the edges and ironed them to get a crease using the hotel iron and hand stitched it over the date.

Did I mention that I ran out of time and had to do this while at the hotel before the wedding?? I hadn't known what I would need to do the fix so I brought a bag of flowers, ribbons, fabric, thread and needles and just made it up as I went.

I stitched on a flower to make it a bit more interesting and then added a rosette flower with ribbons on the back to make that side have a focal point as well.

All in I was really pleased! I thought the bag came out well and the bride loved it. She doesn't know that it was really fixing an OOPS moment so unless she reads this....she never has to know :-P

Project 145: MAWTT Easter and Retrosketches challenge

I am so thrilled to have my first challenge as a DT member of Moving Along With the Times. So happy to be a part of it!

The challenge this week is Easter or Spring. Beth gave me this adorable purple chick and egg ribbon and this was the inspriation for the whole card.

I used RetroSketches' layout this week as my template:

I embossed the lilac paper with the rose embossing folder Claire gave me. I added the ribbon to the sentiment card as well as the little tab. The greeting and tulip are both from a Hobbycraft Easter greeting set of peel-offs (also from Beth) and I finished with the candi and little purple daisy bling to balance out the layout.

Originally I didn't put a background paper down but I thought it looked too plain and the gingham really brought it to life. All purple for the Easter holiday - it works, no?

It was a fun little card and I loved how easily it came together. This will likely go to O's grandad, I know he'll appreciate a bit of spring-like cheer!

A special thanks to Claire who has introduced me to MAWTT - I'm so delighted to be on the DT with her.

Project 114: 20s themed headbands

My friend Jules is having a 20s themed wedding and for her bachelorette party I thought we could use a touch of glam. I talked to her and her maid of honor and we decided that some cute 20s headbands would be the right amount of themed-wear.

Above are my "ingredients" - I went to my local craft store and found loads of great stuff, everything above was less than £10 which is great.

I liked the black and gold card toppers in bows and flowers - perfect for making layers as you can hide all the seams and glue behind the card.

For the ribbon-based bands, I played around and found I liked the gold loop using sparkly ribbon as my base with the bow (but the flower could work as well). I added a sequin in the middle and then in the corner to hide the base of the mini feathers. I love the sparkly white ones but I'm not entierly sure they work. But I love them all the same.

I asked O to take the pictures of me wearing them and as he was lying in bed watching football (I had taken over the big tv watching a baking show while crafting!) I had to squat on the floor to get into view as I was not going to break the flow of the game. Thus the awkward shots!

Next I tried some on an actual headband. I was convinced I had black headbands and I was wrong. So I busted out the sharpies and colored in a cream colored one.

For this one I put some gold ribbon tassles hanging down from the flowers and added a sequin in th emiddle for bling. I added the feathers at the top but then switched the order so the black one is first from the face. It looks better that way. Trust me.

So now I'm going to share this with the bride and see what she thinks - will keep you posted.

I imagine I need more ribbons and bands but I wanted to have a bit of a play with it all first before I bought the full amount of kit. I think that's all I'll need to get to complete them all though which is great!

Project 38: Wedding fascinator

My first attempt at fascinators was for my friend’s hen do and it seemed fitting that I should try to make one for her wedding. I have changed my outfit 5 times for this wedding so now that I have finally settled on a dress I needed to get the fascinator made ahead of the festivities in 2 weeks’ time 

The dress is cranberry coloured so I’ve gone for an ivory and cranberry fascinator. First, a trip to the craft story to get supplies:

I bought a big flower as my base, smaller beaded flowers, feathers and a comb and knew that I’d be relying heavily on my old friend the glue gun. I'm going to have loads of feathers left so I'll have to make up a reason to use them in the future.

I started by taping together the smaller flowers to the wire of the big flower. 

Next I glued in the feathers one by one, adding a smaller flower in the back to keep the glue together.

It looked like this by the end with the ivory in the middle and the burgundy flowers neatly fanning out on one side with feathers on the other. 

Finally I bent back the wire from the flowers to give me a straight base to attach the comb.  I had to keep holding it up to my head to work out which way the comb's teeth should face. I had a second comb on standby in case I got it wrong and had to rip it off and start over. Luckily it wasn't needed but I'm an expert in getting things backwards in the final moment and having to start over. Ask me about assembling flat-pack furniture sometime.

Back to the fascinator story, once it dried it was time to model the finished product. I’m pretty pleased with this. Not the photo - the fascinator. The photo is the 6th one taken and I got bored of posing so decided to give up and use this one even though it's not great. Focus on the fascinator - not my awkward "how do you not know how to use the camera we've had for over 2 years" smile. 

Not sure if I love the feathers but I can always pluck them out on the day in a worst case scenario!

Project 31: 40s Fascinators

My friend Danu is getting married this year and for her Hen Night (Bachelorette Party for those of you back home) we decided to take her to a 1940s Blitz-themed club night in an old train tunnel that felt like an air-raid shelter. This sounds like it’s all rather bad taste but I assure you, it was very cool with a live swing band and everyone in war-time regalia. 

To help us all look the part my friend Han and I decided to make fascinators. First a trip to Primark to buy necklaces, brooches and hair ties with giant flowers that we could use as the feature for the headpieces. Next a trip to the fabric store to buy some netting in white, pink, purple and black. I wish I had taken photos at this stage but I was too excited to start playing with everything. 

We started with a piece for the bride that was a bit OTT and had a long veil. We wanted a looser, more open netting but this proved harder to find so we just got tutu style material. Some beaded cords and a little bit of bling and we had ourselves a bridal headdress.

The headline image on the ltop is the one that I wore – this flower actually came on a headband already so I left it on and added the silk rose as I had this on a brooch. The lace and beads hanging down were already attached to the rose. I’ve had this for years and never worn so I was stoked it finally had a purpose.

The rest were a bit more understated and I’m not sure how true-to-time they are. But I like them. Hannah and I worked out a few designs and then after she left I glued everything in place with a hot glue gun. I love my hot glue gun as it introduces a level of danger to my crafting. I redid all of the ones that had purple netting (which is why you don’t see any here) because I thought with the predominantly bright pink flowers they were looking very 80s and just a bit too modern. I replaced all of these with the black fabric which had tiny polka dots.

Finally just a few ones with the biggest flowers put on some netting in a bow fashion. I gave these to Danu’s home friends and I think they may have been the chicest ones in the lot. Maybe I’ll revisit this when the actual wedding comes round in August…