Accidental Vix

After all the machine sewing that has gone into my bibs and booties I thought I’d make the most of the sunny weather whilst still off work to sit in the garden and do some hand sewing. What better to sew in the garden than flowers! This is the first of my bridal bouquets about to be launched in my shop and on a new website coming soon (I’ll reveal more about that in the near future.) If you are a bride-or-groom-to-be and might be interested in handmade flowers for your big day then please contact me…

Xx

What a lovely day to get the inspiration going… after a long walk (well long hobble for me) to a local cafe and back, even if the pace got slower as I neared home, I decided to make the most of today’s sunshine and sit in the garden. With me I took some felt, thread and needles and started sewing away – before I knew it I had sewn quite a few flowers in prep for a bridal bouquet.However, I wouldn’t recommend yellow if you don’t want to attract the bees. Watch this space and you will hopefully see the final thing over the next week or so.

Have a great weekend.

Xx

Well apart from it being Friday, it’s a special Folksy Friday today as I’m also using it to do my Folksy Finds Handmade Love. All of today’s picks are chosen with the theme ‘made for you’ as I love my husband to bits and in our first year of marriage I always try to make an effort and create him things that are personal to both of us, especially after his Folksy proposal! As it’s a leap year today’s picks are all wedding and engagement related as I wonder how many ladies will take this opportunity to propose:

Made with Love x – Personalised notebook (these notebooks have played such a big part in our life and engagement that it’s at the top of the list)

Old black hen vintage – Floral and lace wedding book (this could make a great guest book but in my opinion an even better wedding planning book, why not use it to think up some proposal ideas ladies?!)

The leaf press – Personalised wedding journal (every bride needs a wedding book, mine was actually the proposal and is bursting at the seams now)

Joy Nevada - Personalised salt and pepper shakers (I can just imagine the proposal – will you pass the salt please darling…)

xx Bags of love - Shabby chic personalised engagement picture (After my own engagement I would encourage anybody to use handmade items in their proposal, and you can keep it forever)

Ink and stylus - The dressing room (this is such a gorgeous and romantic style of illustration)

Zygotegifts – Valentines card (Although unfortunately some of our hearts were misplaced on the day we had some of the 30 newspaper hearts hanging from our pom poms, and BB even made it to our wedding to see them for herself)

Morning Mr Magpie - Cutout heart necklace (This is beautiful and similar to the necklace I commissioned Sal to make to match my bridal earrings)

Artisan silver – Valentines silver necklace (Traceyann made all of my bridesmaids necklaces and personalised them)

Dottie designs - Personalised guest book (If I hadn’t made a message tree canvas for our ‘guest book’ I would have def got a book from Dottie)

Quernus crafts - Love mouse couple (These are too cute for words, they look like a couple who are announcing their engagement!)

Beadazzle designs – Wedding kiss guest book (Love the fun nature of this, and the fact that no 2 are the same)

Imogen’s Imagination - Ivory small fascinator (Sophie made all mine and my bridesmaids’ hats and fascinators, and this one was worn at my hen do)

Atelier 22 - Wedding/engagement card (Love screen printing and the vibrancy of this is perfect for anybody)

Geneva silver – Eco Bridal Bouquet (I made felt flowers for our wedding but these paper ones are fab)

Wall envy art – Personalised wedding vintage book page (Beautiful personalised momento)

By Poppy with love – ‘I DO’print (Beautifully simple, and reminds me of my own ‘I do’ moment last year)

Artyadz - The best is yet to come print (This one’s for my fantastic husband, we’ve had such much bad luck in our first year of marriage but I truly believe the best is yet to come!)

I’m off to reminisce and look at our wedding photos now

Xx

I’ve now been a married lady for nearly 4 months so it’s got to be time to start the mini tutorials on the handmade wedding bits I promised a few weeks ago. The first one is bunting, not wanting to teach a grandma how to suck eggs but I’m going to keep it relatively simple and easy. If I can make 50 metres for our wedding in a few evenings then anybody can fit a bit of bunting time in their lives.

1. My fave part – choose the colour scheme and fabrics, for our wedding we chose charcoal and aqua but you can use as many or little colours as you like, and it’s also a good way to use up scraps or left over bits of fabric.

2. Choose a size and then cut out a template, this can be done from recycled cardboard or paper. Think about where you are hanging your bunting; you can do small bunting for cots or large bunting for hanging in rooms or outside. I used triangles but can can use rectangles or other shapes if you prefer. Another example of fab bunting, which has been seen at a small pram size to larger than life at Camp Besitval is from the fab Ruby Shoes Rocks.

3. Cut out lots or a few triangles depending on your appetite for a challenge or overall length in mind, remember you will need to double your triangles if you want similar bunting to the ones shown, alternatively you could save yourself some time and just use single triangles (skip to step 7.)

4. Choose 2 triangles and put them together with right sides facing each other (they don’t have to be matching fabric, in fact I think they look more quirky if they’re different.) If you want to at this stage you can applique onto some of the triangles before sewing together – for our wedding I added our initials or letters to spell out words such as love – there is a fab picture of us and my parents with bunting above us that says love!

5. Sew down the 2 longest (angled) sides.

6. Turn the sewn triangles inside out and iron (it’s best to choose cotton or fabrics that will iron easily.)

7. Choose your ribbon or bias binding and cut to required length, don’t forget to add some extra for fixing/tying it in place.

8. Fold ribbon etc in half and iron.

9. Sew down the edge of the ribbon with the top of the fabric triangles inside, make sure you leave enough space before the triangles to allow you to hang or tie your bunting at either end.

10. Do just that – hang your bunting, then stand back and admire

Bunting is perfect for cheering up any home, shop, environment or event especially weddings and comes in all shapes and sizes so why not take advantage of doing it yourself and experiment from mini bunting for cots and even prams to big bunting in the garden or street parties. If you don’t fancy giving it a go yourself then why not contact me and I can make it for you! I’m already making some as an alternative to tinsel this Christmas and love a good wedding or party.

Happy bunting

Xx