Lace Clutch with Bow Pin

I made this clutch on Saturday morning. It would be great for Lolita cosplay, Steampunk, weddings, garden parties, Sunday brunch...

The clutch has a magnetic closure and two inside pockets. One pocket zippers closed.

I used a really nice textured sea-foam teal fabric with vintage off-white lace. The teal fabric was originally a square sample of special-order home decor fabric.

The inside lining fabric is a very light silver-grey satin (leftover from my Warcraft costume).

The bow is a detachable pin!

Vintage Lace Fingerless Gloves

I made these gloves to wear with my Steampunk Superwoman costume. The lace was something I found in a box of assorted lace my grandma had given to me, so the materials for this project did not cost me anything.

First I made one glove with my sewing machine. I draped the lace over my hand and wrist to estimate the size, cut a rectangle, then turned down the edges about 1/8" and straight-stitched them down. Then I sewed the seam (the inner wrist) with a thumb hole, tried it on, and adjusted. This took a while, but eventually I ended up with one glove.

Did I mention I finally got a serger?!

This baby is already making my sewing life SO much easier. I haven't used one of these since college and I didn't get one until now because 1) I didn't want to pay full price for a good one and 2) I didn't want to buy a really cheap one. I purchased this one from my mom's friend. Normally I wouldn't recommend buying sergers second-hand, but I knew owner, it had a manual with it, and I was able to give it a test run before hauling it away.

I digress. Back to the lacey gloves... I used the first glove to make a paper pattern for another glove. I cut out the piece of lace, trimmed the edge expecting a 1/4" seam allowance, then ran both edges through the serger (separately) in about a minute flat. Lastly, I placed the edges together and ran it through the sewing machine, leaving the thumb hole. Done!
I then changed the thread to black and made an extra black pair for Steampunk Batgirl.

That was over so fast that I made a third glove with the serger. The serged glove turned out much better than the straight-stitched glove! So then I fixed the first prototype glove by running the seam through the serger (keeping the thumb hole open). I have enough lace to make 7 extra pairs of white gloves, PLUS some black lace... this may be the start of a future Etsy store for me.

More information about sergers and how to use them:
http://sewing.about.cm/od/sergersoverlock/ss/serger.htm

A-Z Bridal Shower Theme

More of an unusual post from me, but I had a fun experience so I thought I would share the ideas with others.  This concept can also be applied to a birthday party or Baby Shower.

I created an ABC themed bridal shower.  For the online RSVP system each guest was asked to pick a letter, once a letter was chosen it was taken out of the list.  The letter had to be used when picking out a gift.  Creativity was encouraged.  P for pretty panties, or C for Cherry Candy Cup.  I don't remember what I listed but I hope the point was obvious.

When the guest arrive they were reminded of their letter picks with a simple sheet reminder, and given a necklace with the alphabet letter on it.

This is the first game, that no one was allowed to say the groom's name, and if they did they had to give up their necklace to the person who was first to catch them.  It's a really fun game!

It being a tea party, I made these little place card holders to tell each person where to sit.  It's a great way to mix people up with new people and ensure conflicting people are at different tables.

Here is a fun game I hadn't seen before and it was a hit.  Our tea party was on the balcony of my place, so using the window (to limit my cleaning to some simple Windex), I placed a photo of the groom on the inside of the glass, and made a gift wrap over the outside of the window.  I let the bride open the gift, to see that I'm gifting her with his groom ha ha, bad joke.  Now the real fun begins.  It's a take on the rules of pin the tail on the donkey.  But you've got lipstick and need to draw the big kiss on the groom.

Oh by the way that's Avalyn, and she did pretty good with ~kissing~ the groom.

 

Other games we had were the popular wedding dress out of toliet paper, or guess the answers to the questions from the groom.  As each game ended, the winner could pick a letter from the bride's name, in which they got that prize bag.  Each prize inside was associated with the letter.  I remember that S was a Star-shaped pancake ring.  

Hope these give you some fun ideas to create your own themed shower party.

Wedding Wednesday - Pew Bows

If you are getting married in a church like I did, one decoration you shouldn't overlook is decorating the ends of the pews in the center aisle.

When I was buying flowers for my bouquets, I bought extra hydrangea stems (fortunately they were on clearance) and made pew bows for decorations at the wedding ceremony.

The stem was taped onto a pew clip (which can be purchased from orientaltrading.com) and then I added 6" organza ribbon to make the bow and hanging ribbon. I also added some 1.5" satin ribbon for more interest.

To transport all of them and keep the ribbons from wrinkling I hung them all on plastic hangers. I was able to get 8 of them on one hanger.

After the wedding I was able to recoup a lot of the costs by selling all of the pew bows to a Craigslister who just happened to be planning her own wedding with the same color scheme. You can't do that with real flowers!

For a variation you could make pew bows without the flowers on top and you could add colorful ribbons instead.

Wedding Wednesday - Escort Cards

Escort cards are a popular means to guide guests to which table they are supposed to sit at for your wedding reception dinner. It is possible to buy cards by the pack that you can print on, but this can be really expensive, like 50 cents to more than a dollar per card.

Making your own escort cards is a little time-consuming but the process is simple and it can save you a lot of money. Handmade cards are also a nice personal touch.

To make 200 escort cards I bought one stack of card stock from the PaperZone for around $20 and I ended up using up less than half of the paper supply. My other tools and supplies were items that I already had on hand: art markers, a caligraphy pen a shaped punch, ruler, and paper cutter.

Wedding Wednesday - Silk Bridal Bouquets

This was my favorite wedding project - making my own bouquets!

I used "silk" flowers from Michaels. I figured I probably couldn't get the blue color I wanted from real flowers! Since they aren't real flowers I was able to make them all myself, months ahead of my wedding date. I was also spared the hassle of dealing with delicate flowers and finding a way to store and transport them. These bouquets could easily be tossed in a plastic bag without suffering.

After placing all of the stems together the way I wanted the bouquet to look, I wrapped them together with masking tape and then hide the tape with green floral tape. Then I cut the stems with a wire cutter (this was the difficult, time-consuming part!).

Once all of the bouquets were made I created silk wraps with pearl buttons to disguise the wire stems.

I love how they turned out! Two anniversaries later, my bouquet still looks gorgeous in a vase in my kitchen!

Wedding Wednesday - Affordable Custom Flower Baskets

Every flower girl needs a basket to hold her rose petals! However, bridal shops tend to charge a LOT of money for flower girl baskets. When I had to come up with flower girl baskets for my own wedding I found that the local Michaels arts & crafts store carried a Plain Ivory Flower Basket for a very affordable price (even more so if you have a coupon).

Michaels also had these ivory satin flowers and I found the pearl stems in the floral department. All I had to do was twist them in place! I added a matching ivory satin ribbon to hide the twisty wire as a finishing touch.

Two baskets for two flower girls!

Wedding Wednesday - Cake-Shaped Card Box

A handcrafted touch adds a bit of personality and customization to a wedding! Even if you aren't getting married until the summer, you can start working on crafts MONTHS ahead of time as you prepare for the big day!

One thing every bride needs is a big box for all of those cards (which might contain money or gift cards) that guests bring to your ceremony and/or reception. You don't want to risk someone running off with it either, so what's better than something big and eye-catching?

This is a card box shaped like a wedding cake!

This craft project is really easy! You need:

• One set of stacking hat boxes
• Box cutter or sharp craft knife
• Acrylic paint (cream or white)
• 1.5-2" organza and/or satin ribbon in your wedding color(s)
• Hot glue & a glue gun

Stack up your hat boxes and cut big round holes in the tops/bottoms where the boxes connect so the whole thing is hollow. Add a slot on top for the cards to go through. Paint them and glue them together, then decorate with ribbon to make it look more like a tiered cake.

Special Occasion Capelet

I had a winter wedding to go to on Sunday at church, a great new dress, and nothing to wear with it to keep me warm (and conservative). Oh noes!  Instead of panicking, I decided to make a little capelet to go with my dress.

Voila! A capelet. Or mini-cloak, whichever you prefer.

Why a capelet? Well for one, it has no armholes, which means less sewing and patterning time required.  I started this project by sketching for 5-10 minutes on Thursday night, brainstorming ideas of what it could look like and what silhouette might work best with a mermaid-style dress.

doodling ideas... during Bible study (shhh!)

 After sketching various concepts for shrugs and shawls, I decided to go with something simple. After all, the only time I had to actually work on it would be Saturday.

Fortunately I already had a Butterick cape pattern from several years ago when I made a Star Wars handmaiden costume. I traced the FRONT and BACK pieces onto some muslin to use as a new pattern, but cropped the pattern off at the waistline because I didn't want a full-length gothic cloak. Then I draped the pattern on my dressform and re-drew the bottom hem line, deciding that I wanted it to be at the waistline at the back, but higher at the front, just under the bust.

Next I traced the pattern onto the fabric and the lining, using purple velveteen fabric that I already had (I bought it on sale years ago, intending to make a coat out of it). Leftover satin from my Warcraft Priest costume turned out to be excellent lining fabric. I sewed the lining pieces together, sewed the fabric pieces together, then sewed the fabric to the lining to make the cloak.

Lastly I needed some kind of clasp. I didn't have a chain or clasp that would work, and no time to drive to the craft store. So I took some extra fabric and made a nifty little flap with a button hole, and sewed on a couple of spare buttons I had in my button box.

In all this project took about 5 hours to complete. It was a fun weekend project, very straight-forward and easy to make!

Pillowboxes!

Err... what's a pillowbox?

They are boxes... which kinda look like pillows once you pinch the sides and pop them into shape.

They make great wrapping for any occasion, such as wedding favors, baby or bridal shower favors, or other small gifts like candy or gift cards. You can purchase plain white pillowboxes in bulk at a craft store or OrientalTrading.com.

One piece of 12x12" scrapbook paper was more than enough to decorate two boxes and I used some of the scraps to create coordinating gift tags. Ivory satin and organza ribbon leftover from my wedding added the finishing touch.

Materials (for 2 boxes):

- 2 Blank white pillowbox

- 1 sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper

- Satin ribbon about 1" wide

- Thin organza ribbon or string (to attach the gift tag)

- Scissors and ruler or a paper cutter

- Double-stick tape

- Standard hole punch

Instructions:

1. Measure the length and width of the pillowbox. Cut a piece of scrapbook paper so that the width is about 1 cm less than the length of the pillowbox and the length of the paper is 1 to 3 cm greater than twice the width of the pillowbox. Measurements do not need to be exact, just close. From the leftover paper, cut a second piece the same size for your second box and hang on to the leftover scraps until step three (3).

2. Wrap the decorative paper around the pillowbox lining up one edge with the edge of the box. The box should be completely wrapped, plus a little extra. Crease the paper in two places where the pillowbox is creased, then secure the paper in place with double-stick tape. The extra lenth on one end should be taped underneath the opposite edge which is aligned with the pillowbox edge. Repeat this for your second box.

3. From the paper remnants cut two pieces of paper which are about 1.5" x 3". Fold each in half and punch a hole in one of the corners near the fold.

4. Thread a piece of thin organza ribbon through the hole in the gift tag and tie a knot to join the ends in a loop. Repeat on the second gift tag.

5. Pinch the pillowboxes into shape and fold down the curved edges. Insert gift card or candy (or other surprise!).

6. Tie a wide satin ribbon around the pillowbox to secure the ends. First tie an overhand knot, then slip the looped ribbon on the gift card over one end of the satin ribbon. Finish tying the satin ribbon in a bow or double-knot. Repeat for the second pillowbox.