Friday, June 28, 2013

My wedding in Well Wed Magazine

It's hard to believe my wedding was almost a year and a half ago.  Seems further away than that.  Me being a crafty person, I wanted to add my own touches to my wedding.  Why am I blogging about this now?  Well my wedding was recently in a magazine called Well Wed, the Winter 2013 edition.  Our florist Dawn, owner and creative director of Soiree Floral, submitted it to the magazine and they accepted it for their most recent issue!  I was so excited to finally see it.  It took months!  The submission was last year.
If you are getting married or having any similar sort of celebration, Well Wed is a fantastic magazine to use for inspiration.  If you live in NYC, you can find the Hamptons version at Barnes and Noble in Union Square.  If you live in New England you can find the Cape and Island edition.  You can also purchase them online.

A photo of the runners I made for the tables.  This is an Amy Butler home dec fabric.


The center photo is our wedding invitation I designed.  We had them printed up from vistaprint.com
The photo to the right are my nieces who were the flower girls.  Their dresses I designed and hired a seamstress to sew them.  The fabric here also is Amy Butler.  I used a contrasting light blue polka dot for the sashes and the dress border.

The bottom left corner picture are the favors I made.  These were luggage tags using all of the Amy Butler fabric I ordered when trying to decide on the runners for the tables. These took some time to make.  I definitely recommend not waiting till the last minute.  

Dress is by J.Crew I did design the sash with fabric I found at Mood in NYC. 
In addition I designed my head piece, a fascinator, with feathers, mesh netting and beading found at


All photos were taken by Claudia Kronenberg Photography.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Tutorial: Father's Day Pocket Square / Hankie

Since my last post, I delivered a baby! Yes, little Harper Scarlett came 2 weeks early.  Since my husband is now a father and father's day is coming up, I thought it only appropriate to post an easy pocket square for you to sew for the dad in your life.  Pocket squares are making a come back, influenced by the show Mad Men, seen in GQ magazine as an "indispensable tool" and now J.Crew is carrying a line of pocket squares.  Pocket squares are a great way to dress up a suit, add a dash of color and a fun print.

This doesn't have to be just for dads, my friend Kayte loves these pocket squares for herself.  She uses these as a hankie all the time especially in the New York City humid summers.   If you are a beginning sewer this is a great project for you.

The key ingredient for this pocket square is you want very soft cotton.  I used Liberty of London which is called a Lawn Fabric.  The count is high, which means there are a lot of very fine threads per inch making it softer (think of high count bedding sheets).  RobertKaufman, a popular fabric manufacturer, also makes a lawn fabric in solid colors.

Materials:
1/2 yard of fabric ( you will be using a 12" square but stores usually require you buy a minimum)
matching cotton machine thread
size 8 needle
fine pins

Step 1:
Cut out a 12" square and iron.  Fold over 1/4" twice on 2 opposite ends.  I pin down, iron, then secure the pins into the fabric.



Step 2: where the raw edge meets the now folded edged, fold in the corner at an angle, this way your corners will be nice and neat and have no fabric overhang. Repeat step one, fold over 1/4" seam allowance twice.

Step 2

Step 3: all fabric is pinned down. Because this is such a skinny seam allowance I do pin it parallel to the seam. Normally in the classes I teach I tell my students pins should be perpendicular so the pins can be pulled out while you sew or the needle can jump the pins.

Step 3



Step 4: Sew on the inside fold. This ends up being about 1/4" seam allowance.  If you are using the Liberty of London or the Robert Kaufman Lawn fabrics use a size 8 needle since it is finer.  Start your sewing somewhere in the middle, not on a corner.  This reduces the risk of the fabric getting bunched up on a corner or pushed down into the machine.



Step 5: when you reach a corner, sew to the end and back stitch to the beginning of the fold.  Leave the needle in, pick presser foot up and pivot.  Sew down the next seam. Repeat on all corners.

Step 5


Step 6 all finished, iron and steam and gift!





 


 If you aren't a sewer or just don't have the time to shop for fabric and make the gift, you can purchase one in my etsy shop. 
Click here to see my Liberty Pocket Squares. 

If you decide to sew this let me know how you do or if you have any questions.

Thanks!