Wedding Bits and Bobs

Celebratory Bird

It is once again the season of weddings and we've had two close together this year. Both of them were close friends and both incorporated a lot of handmade loveliness so it was only natural I suppose that somewhere along the line I would get drawn in! I always like working on personal commissions and special occasion pieces as it is nice to know where your work will end up and I like to think that the little bits that I make go to helping make the whole occasion even more special.

Little bags

Bead and charm detail

Bead and charm detail

For the first wedding the lovely bride had done almost all the handmade bits herself but asked me to make a couple of little purses for her bridesmaids to wear round their wrists to keep all their essentials in. I used satin fabrics in the wedding colour scheme and finished off the bags with some heart shaped beads and little key charms. I did have a cunning plan of using bangles for the handles but it all went a bit awry so instead I used pretty ribbon and made them into drawstring pouches.

Corsage

Dress clips

Gathered jacket

I also replaced the buttons

The second wedding was very much a handmade affair with almost everything made by the couples friends and family. My contribution was altering the wedding dress, a lovely vintage piece with a lacy over jacket. I gathered up the jacket at the back to add a bit of structure and interest and made a corsage to finish it off. I also made some little clips so that the long dress could be (elegantly) hitched up for dancing and merry making!

Bird and Heart

Eye detail

Heart detail

As gifts for both couples I made bird cushions with hearts embroidered with their names and the date of the wedding. I forgot to take pictures of the first one but you get the idea from the second one! These birds are based on the one I made for another wedding commission earlier this year. Last, but not least, congratulations to both couples and may your lives together be happy and joyful.

Crochet Giftage

Work in Progress

I was just looking through my recent posts and there seems to be a heavy crochet bias at the moment. Not wanting to break the trend, here is another post featuring crochet. I like crochet because it is quick and so projects can be finished in a short amount of time, giving that lovely thrill of achievement that comes with completing something handmade.

Valentines card (detail)

Valentines day present

View from the back

The middle of February brings (rain, wind, snow) my Mum's birthday and Valentines day, both days that are for celebrating two of the most important people to me. So, I like to make my gifts for them if I can.

Heart detail

For Valentines day I made a mug cosy for partner of patience; he has no real interest in or desire for a mug cosy but he is very difficult to buy for (and in the preceding two months I've had to deal with the trauma of finding him Christmas and Birthday presents) so this seemed like a nice little project to let him know how much I care (buckets available on request.) I found this lovely mug to wrap it around and finished the gift off with chocolate, which in my opinion improves most things.

Notebook cover and mug cosy

Mug cosy

I used to find it very easy to buy presents for my Mum, less so now as she has most things she wants and I really hate buying things for the sake of it, I love getting presents for people but I want to get things that they will like or use. I saw a granny square notebook cover in one of my books and, being slightly obsessed with granny squares at the moment, decided it would be a good project to make for her as she could use it for covering a notebook, reading book or sketchbook. I then made a matching mug cosy because there are few things lovelier than curling up with a book and a nice hot cup of tea.

Front of the book cover

Back of the book cover

Christmas Printing

Christmas Gift Labels

I've had a productive day today, which makes me feel good. I've got a load of boring paper work out the way (still plenty left but there's only so many bits of boring I can handle at once!) and more interestingly I've made a start on Christmas paper and tags.

Gingerbread Gift Wrap

I always like to try and make as much stuff as I can for Christmas, I think it's much nicer to receive something hand made and it is more in what I think of as the spirit of Christmas. Bearing this in mind I decided to make my own wrapping as well this year. I've made a lot of neck based gifts this year (not made of necks, made for necks; just so there's no confusion) and today I've printed some labels to go with them. They feature what the gift is made from and how to look after it. 

Reindeer Gift Wrap

The other advantage to making my own gift wrap is that it is cheap. As we are hopefully moving house very soon this is quite important! The stuff I've made today has been super cheap, the tags were 79p for 10, the brown paper was £1 and the stamps were also a £1 (for all of them, not just one!) It's really simple, just very basic block printing but the stamps are cute and it's all hand-made!

Reindeer Gift Wrap

Cosy Cowls and Snuggly Scarves

Purple ruffles

Even the most optimistic folks are admitting that it is definitely Autumn and we are not going to get an Indian Summer. Personally, I'm quite happy about this as it means its time for hats, scarves and gloves to come out again. As well as revisiting some old favourites I have been in a flurry of wool and creativity recently conjuring up assorted neck warming devices for the coming gifting season.

Chunky knitted cowl

Buttons!

Detail

The cowl above is for my friends birthday; this may be the first time in our friendship that she has actually received her present even vaguely close to her birthday. Normally, despite my best intentions it ends up being weeks (months) late. It's made from a snuggly chunky wool/acrylic blend with bright buttons for extra funkiness.

Detail of ruffle scarf

Detail

The purple scarf is for me! It's a scarf yarn called Arabesque and it's a bit bizarre to knit with but pretty quick to grow once you get into the swing of things. It's a nice easy way to make a ruffly scarf without doing anything complicated!

The following pictures are Christmas gifts so I'm putting up no details, just a couple of teaser shots!

Knitted cowl

Crochet cowl

Appleby Craft Fair

A selection of crafts

I did my first Craft Fair of the year yesterday at Appleby Public Hall, organised by Masseuse Smooth of Penrith. I did one there last November which was really good and yesterday I had the same spot, right at the entrance which was great. It was pretty quiet yesterday and none of us took a lot of money but it was good to see the other crafters and compare notes and have a catch up. I think next time I may put less stuff out as I think my table is looking a little bit crowded, but I'd rather it was that way than not have enough stuff! Anyways, here are some pictures!

Owl Doorstop

Owl Family

Suffolk Puff and origami hair combs

Cards, purses and gadget cases

Brooches

Buttons

Cushions

All images © Helen Walsh 2012