DIY Wedding - Creative Name Places with a sewing twist

I wanted to inject as much of our personalities into our wedding as possible and the name places expressed my love of sewing! I found an image on pinterest which had made use of the spools for the name places so I borrowed the idea.

I purchased the spools on Etsy from Crafty Wool Felt. You can buy different quantities of the spools and they also have the plain wooden cake toppers to paint.

We varnished the spools by dipping them in the varnish and leaving them to dry. Thanks mum for your help!

I then wrote the names on plain paper with a Deco inspired font and used a pin to fix the name to the spool. Sometimes the wood was too hard to stick it into the wood, so I had to place some blue tac in the middle of the spool and fix the pin that way.

All in all, I was pleased with the result. The wedding guests were impressed with this small injection of sewing love:)

Handmade Wedding: Sewing the Bridesmaid Dress

Today I will be sharing the process of making my sisters bridesmaid dress!

The bridesmaid dress was a little challenging as most of my ideas didn't end up working.  I wanted my sisters bridesmaid dress to be art nouveau inspired with a casual twist and mine to be more art deco inspired..... the nouveau never really eventuated. But one thing which saved me was a last minute fabric buy. When buying the wedding silks and chiffon's, I saw this orange flower print and couldn't resist a reckless purchase. Little did I know that this decision would save the big day!  The theme of the dress also needed to be casual garden wedding friendly.

Fabric manipulation

For the bodice, I used a basic block pattern and shaped the back piece. I started using this fabric manipulation technique that I saw Christopher Palu from Project Runway do on a number of garments. Not having a great deal of experience working with silks and chiffons I decided to use tissue paper as a stabilizer. Firstly I ruled lines 1cm apart on the paper. And layered the fabric and paper; silk, chiffon and then paper on top. Following the lines, I sewed across each pattern piece. 

I then ripped the tissue paper off (which was not a fun job) and cut between each sewed line. 

Things aren't quite going to plan:(

I was planning on continuing this technique for the skirt but had to forfeit the idea when the chiffon on chiffon skirt version ended up totally warped. No one wants a wonky skirt! Time was running short so I had to make a decision fast. When I get to this point of 'sewing despair' I sit in front of my fabric stash, waiting for the solution to bare its wonderful head. This wonderful fabric was like a beacon of light, shining amongst the other fabrics.
So the solution was to cover the peppermint fabric with the chiffon floral. It did feel sad abandoning the initial concept and cover up my hard work:( But something had to be done

Circle skirt and Hand Sewing

I cut the 1/4 Circle skirt (using the calculations in my circle skirt tutorial) and started to drape the chiffon on the dress. Hand sewing all the way. 

Sewing and the sun
During the summer months I find it hard to be inside, so I often take my sewing outside!

 

Hair 

Kass got her hair done in a braid. I initially wanted her to wear it out, but living in one of the windiest cities in the world could potentially be a problem for long hair. I really like how it all turned out.

All in all I am happy with the dress and feel that it fit the garden theme of the wedding very well:)

Thanks sis for being such a great bridesmaid!


Still to come...... the grooms suit, my wedding dress, crocheted cake toppers. Plus much more. 

DIY Wedding - How to Design and Create you own Wedding

It is no secret that I love to make and create! So it was only natural to apply this passion to our wedding. Creating our own DIY wedding was a great experience and certainly challenging. There are a heap of advantages to having a DIY wedding 

 1. Budget - For those of us who do not want to spend our life's saving on a wedding, a DIY wedding can be super cost efficient. We saved a heap of money!

2. Unique - It gives you the opportunity to have a unique wedding with a heap of personality.

3.  Pride and Experience - It was a great experience and I am proud to have pulled it off!

So, in the coming month I will be sharing my experiences and tips! 
Today I am starting with collecting inspiration and deciding on themes

The following list/reminders helped with the decision making process throughout the DIY wedding planning and reduced headaches

- How much are you going to DIY -

I would have loved to DIY everything, but that was unrealistic for me. (e.g. I wanted to make our cake but it just was not possible, so I had it made in a local bakery, but I made the stand (stay tuned to see our cake!))

- Season - 

Consider the time of the year when planning. Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. e.g. you don't want a long sleeved wedding dress in the summer.
(We had our ceremony under this tree in the Australian summer)

- Colour scheme - 

Choose a colour (red, pink, green, yellow etc) or a colour theme (e.g. pastels, bright colours, metallic) 

(We had pastels with peppermint green and apricot as the main colours)

- Formality - 

Formal, semi formal, informal/casual 
(Our wedding was casual, which suited the backyard theme)

 - Venue type -

Garden, Backyard, Beach, Hall, Barn, Restaurant, Country, city, tent

(We had a garden, backyard wedding)

- Add your own personality/quirks - 
Put some effort into injecting your personality into the wedding

e.g. Music, hobbys,interests  
(We took our cameras with us for the photos, I sewed our clothes, had cotton spool name tags, crocheted our cake toppers,created our playlist etc.)

- Inspired by an era - 

Period, Deco, Nouveau, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, modern
(The Art Deco period inspired my dress, jewellery & make up)

- Verbs - 
Choose some relevant descriptive terms:

eclectic, quirky, fancy, elegant, rustic, classic, romantic, party, rock, punk, natural, ecological, ethical, vintage, indie, local, organic 

(I chose these verbs Eclectic/romantic/ethical/local/vintage/party)

- The dreaded budget - 

Every decision needs to be made with the budget in mind! 

(Ours was low!)

- Be practical -

Think practically, try not to get carried away. The reality is that you can not achieve every fantastic thought/inspiration. You have learn to edit and have a relaxed attitude! What ever happens, happens.

-Be organised -

Create a timeline (find some basic one's on the internet), create excel spreadsheets to help you organise, assign roles/jobs for the big day

- Avoid internet saturation and be confident - 

If you are struggling to make decisions, step away from pinterest and wedding blogs. Be confident and trust you decisions

- Think about your journey -

Think about your journey together as a couple and the current stage in your life. How can you incorporate this into you wedding. 

(We had a photo wall which reflected our journey and the people in our lives. The music was also a reflection of our journey together)

- Mood board and keep on track -

Use all of this information to create a mood board and keep checking back at your theme ideas. It is easy to get carried away. Make a decision and stick with it. Or have a solid reason to change!

Posts still to come...

- How to set up your garden/backyard wedding

- Making your wedding dress

- Making the grooms suit

-  Crocheting the cake toppers

- Making the bridesmaid dress

- Creating your invites

- Choosing your flowers

- Choosing your jewellery

-Choosing a phtographer