Flower Girl Dress

Well, the actual flower girl in her dress!

The Flower Girl Dress

 Is done!  My back could not handle another stitch!  It took lots of hand stitching and I am feeling way older than I want to admit.

 It is still really heavy though, so I am going to stuff the little bow loops and have it laying down until I get rid of it.

Bad shot of the back, but I think the graphite bow makes for a nice finish.

Flower Girl Dress progress

Fitting tomorrow!

Flower Girl dress is happening

 For a time, I wasn't sure this was going to happen.  But, the dress now has a skirt, many of them actually.  It has a slip skirt with netting, a full skirt with an overlay and a tiered skirt and overlay over that.  The dress also has a zipper! It needs to be hemmed of course and still needs a lot of finish work, but at least I am going to complete it! 

Flower girl dress

I finally got this started.  The wedding is September 15 and of course the flower girl is about 2 hours from me.  The Grandma/Mother of the Bride thought she got me everything I needed to make the dress but misread the pattern.  I have 2 5/8 yards of fabric and need 4 1/2, I have no lining and no netting.  I am feeling stressed about how this is going to work out so I am very anxious to be able to post the finished product.....soon!

Bridal Shower gift

 I am sending this gift, so I got a (boring) gift card.  I made a special bag to hold the gift card and a card to match though.  I love that wedding dress stamp.  LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

 A recipe card came with the invitation.  I shared a recipe for Orzo Stuffed Peppers.  The bride is very into health, so I thought it's an appropriate choice....and, it's yummy.

Bridal Shower Gift

Here is the gift: a towel cake (2 bath towels, 4 hand towels, and 8 wash cloths), and a wedding day survival kit.


Here's the top and inside the kit. There's chalk, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, ibuprofen, feminine products, nail glue, tweezers, Q-tips, Rolaids, super glue, deodorant, razors, bandaids, clear nail polish, wet wipes, a sewing kit, and.....I don't know what else. I should probably find something that gets super glue off of your skin because I got it on mine gluing the flowers to the tray!

Very cool

And very fun for me! My friend asked that I make a bridal shower gift and gave me a budget. She tossed out an idea, I tossed out another, she fine tuned it, making it gift-recipient-specific, and I got to go from there and create. This is a gift for a couple in Chicago who love a restaurant/bar called Blue Line. The restaurant has a website that I checked out to learn that it's modeled after a 1950's train car. It's retro, with a neon blue sign, and classic with metal tables and chairs that look like (and probably are) train car benches. So, I went with a blue and silver theme and embellished these flour sack towels. I hope they are a hit!

Wedding gift

Since I was taking the gift to the wedding, I wanted to make it extra special. I tried to match it to the invite as closely as possible.

Gifts

Once again, I'm giving gifts and I've made them. Not sure that everyone appreciates handmade gifts, but what the heck, they're meant to be thoughtful and special. Our friend who owns a sushi restaurant and his wife are having a baby, so I had to made them a onesie! And, I helped my friend with her wedding invitations not expecting anything in return, but she very generously rewarded my efforts and assistance. It was so nice I truly felt guilty. So, I made her this wristlet for her wedding day or for this summer. I just had to say thank you for her thank you that was so unexpected.

Numero DOS!

Here's another little bonnet. More plain and perfect for a little boy. I wish I had a baby's head, or even a doll to put it on. Maybe I'll hunt down a Cabbage Patch at my parents--I know there's a bald one hanging out there somewhere. Anyway, if you need a sentimental baby gift, let me know.... The white blanket is going to be donated. White is not white! I tried but did not not successfully match the yarn, but it'll still make someone very happy, I hope. In the meantime, I've started a blue one for a baby boy due in August. The color is much deeper than it looks here. It's called "Cape Cod Blue". I am using a more mature blue as I know the father of the baby and he's not the type to go for traditional baby blue or another baby-type color. I tried to pick one that everyone would like.
I am finally getting rid of these invitations tomorrow. There are invites for the ceremony only, invites for the ceremony and reception, maps to the ceremony, and maps to the reception, and extras that were just added by the bride. Hopefully, they'll do as I didn't want to purchase another pack of cards for only 10 extras, so I used what I had. I am hoping that since most people don't mind saving money, they'll appreciate them?
I got a great comment from someone near and dear about learning something that I do. I was very honored as it was from someone so talented in her own right, but it got me thinking how cool it would be to have art/craft camp for adults!! I actually think when scrapbooking first started to boom, they had these all night scrapbooking convention type events. Well, that's cool, but I'd love to have something to show everyone how with very little supplies, you can make something wonderful. Scrapbooking is great, don't get me wrong, but there are so many supplies and tools that it's rather overwhelming to new crafters. I can carry this blanket anywhere I go, it's a skein of yarn and a crochet hook, and it's easy to pick up where you left off. So, you can do a row here, a row there. So, we probably won't get to have craft/activity camp, but if there is anything you ever want to try, let me know!

What's this?

An off season project. I typically reserve knitting and crocheting projects for Fall and Winter, but know several people having babies this year, so I'm changing it up a bit. Not to mention this awesome pattern that goes pretty fast and looks good in any color.

Next up, I'm going to try to make a baby bonnet out of vintage handkerchiefs that my mom got for me. She gave one to one of my aunts when one of my cousins was born and she recently got it as a bridal shower gift. Why? Because, apparently, you clip a few threads and have a wedding day hanky, a "something old". This poem goes along with it.

One more thing, please do this. Thanks!

Cool Kid

You can now see why Madison is so cool. Here she is trying on her dress for the first time. She stood so tall, so pretty, and so anxious...... to do this.....

I love this kid.
Here's the back of her, at her second and final fitting, getting the bow adjusted.

If it's not one wedding, it's another....

This is my cousin's bridal shower gift. The bag of course is a special gift for her, commemorative of her wedding colors. Inside, is a gift for she and her fiance. There's a theme for this gift that gives itself away on the outside. The rest is on the inside, I won't give it all away, but I'm including special recipes for baking....and I'll leave it at that. Hope she likes it!

Invite Update.....

The invitation plan is in place. Here are 50 completed.

The front:

And inside:

150 people will be invited to the reception, but only 50 can attend the ceremony due to limited space. So, these 50 invite guests to the ceremony and reception. I have another 100 to make that are worded differently and invite guests to the reception only. They will look the same as these, the wording will just be a little different. I have to work on the direction inserts, of course there are 2 sets of those too and then get the right envelopes. I already ordered one set but they were the wrong color upon arrival. With this being a September wedding, there's plenty of time for it all to work out.

Work for today

I should have photographed the inside of this bag--it's the same as the darkest blue on the ribbon and is a really great color.

Here's a shot of the accent, a little ribbon flower.

As I'm all about the sparkle, this bag features not one, but two sparkly ribbons: orange and green. It's a fun one. I am not thrilled with this photo because I don't think it really shows how cute it is. The ribbons are great--kind of funky geometric designs keep it girly but not over the top so your significant other won't hold it when told to!

This is a follow up from the "tote" that I used these same fabrics on in a previous post trying to come up with a bag for my friend's mom. I like this one so much that I think I'm just going to send it--it's got the cell phone pocket inside, just like the other one and the green fabric at the bottom goes all the way around. It came out pretty perfect if I can say so myself!
Finally, something I've had in the back of my mind since I made the dress purse--a wedding dress purse! I may give it to my cousin, or the cute girl at the tanning salon who is newly engaged and the most excited little bride-to-be I've ever seen.

Still Trying.....

Even though working on these invitations was not what I planned to do tonight, I felt like I had to do some work on them. These photos aren't great but I wanted to get them posted in hopes I'd have some genius comments that would assist me by suggesting where I could get color photos done well (for the inside). I have a ban on one local office store after a bad experience during work on a February wedding, or I might know where I was going to try to accomplish this. There was really no interest in my samples, which was fine, I had to start somewhere! And, the second invitation photo still has some work to be done. I have to do some more work on the text box.

I was given suggestions to try something like this on the front: (it's stamped and embossed: "happily ever after....a life of love and laughter"
And, the inside, I think, is supposed to be something like this:Monday night, I finished this tote for a friend's mom. It's also a "rough draft". It's a nice tote size--this one is a quite a bit larger and has a daisy button.
There was ONE request....it has to have a cell phone pocket.....that's mine in there, a perfect fit!

Wedding work

I am working on a couple more weddings this year. This one is having a tropical, beach theme. The colors are teal and "burnt" coral. I didn't realize until I hit the stores today that I may not know what that is. But, these are just preliminaries. I needed to have a starting place for when I meet with the bride and groom this week.

I thought this little beach themed charms were cute.

This is the outside of another example that reads, "happily ever after.....a life of love and laughter". It stamped in gold and embossed.
Here's the inside of the above invitation. It's where the invite will actaully be printed. This one differs from the first 2 in that it's more of a card format--the first 2 are flats.
And, some more options. The printed paper that I put on top is really pretty; it sparkles!