Woodland Animal Baby Gift Set

I was so excited when I was asked to use this darling fabric to make a baby gift set to welcome a friend's new baby! I adore all the animals and love the retro motif. 

The set included a baby blanket (22" x 36"), 3 coordinating burp cloths, and an owl onesie. All were personalized with baby's name or monogram. 

The main woodland animal fabric was paired with two geometric prints - one golden orange and one green - from Simpatico's Simply Color collection.

Simply Color Ikat Diamonds in Mustard

Simply Color Ikat Diamonds in Green

 I think the modern geometric patterns of the Simply Color fabrics helped balance the retro style of the Woodland Tails fabric for a truly contemporary look that would appeal to any new mom. 

This fabric trio was used specifically for the burp cloth set. Two were embroidered with the baby's name and the third was embroidered with the baby's initials in a traditional monogram style. All were lined with an incredibly soft and plush minky fabric in an ivory quilted pattern.

Because the baby blanket was the largest item the main Woodland Tails was used for the front and the same soft ivory minky fabric that lined the burp cloths was repeated on the back of the blanket. While baby's name is embroidered in a handsome brown thread, I used turquoise thread in the topstitching to bring out some of the blue hues in the woodland fabric. Baby is sure to be cuddly and warm in his new blanket! Particularly because the blanket is so thick, it also makes a great mat providing a large cushioned surface to play and relax on.

Personalized baby blanket folded in half

Baby blanket with plush backing and large silk embroidery pesonalization

The owl onesie incorporated the colors in the blanket and burp cloth fabrics. An adorable golden orange and yellow owl sits atop a brown tree branch with green leaves. I used blue silk thread for the baby's name to again bring out the blue hues in the main Woodland Tails fabric. I think the combination is so cute!

 

All in all, this was such a fun project to work on and I loved combining the fabrics from the different collections for a one-of-a-kind custom gift set :)

Elegant Bridal Clutch

One of my favorite handmade items from my wedding was my bridal clutch. I knew I wanted an elegant style that complimented the details of my dress. My dress was rather simple save for the ruffle cascade in the back and the beaded sash so I used those attributes for the overall look of the clutch.

Copyright Resolusean Photography

I opted for a white dupioni silk for both the interior and exterior. Using strips of the silk fabric, I created a ruffle detailing along the right side of the handbag that incorporated the ruffles along the back of my dress.

Fortunately I had a beautiful brooch that I pinned along the ruffles. The brooch complimented the white gold and diamonds of my bridal jewelry but also brought in the gold tones from our wedding theme. 

I love the way the clutch turned out and feel that it truly was the perfect accessory for my wedding gown.

Formal Pleated Clutch - Tutorial

Ok, friends! It's time for another tutorial :) These adorable envelope clutches have a stylish pleated exterior. These are a bit more time consuming than a typical envelope clutch because of the extra pleated detailing but it's totally worth it!

These clutches can be customized to any dimension and I decided to make mine 5inches x 10inches.

I used a black silk for the exterior, extra sturdy interfacing, and a deep plum silk for a gorgeous pop of color on the interior. The clutch will be folded in thirds so cut your fabric 3 times the final height plus an extra inch on each side for seam allowance (ex]17inches x 12inches for a clutch 5inches x 10inches).

Pin the exterior fabric around the interfacing.

Next, create the envelope pocket by folding the bottom of the fabric/interfacing up. I wanted my clutch to be 5inches tall, so I marked the fabric 5 inches from the bottom on each side.

Using a straight edge fold the fabric up from the bottom and pin the fabric in place.

Fold the remaing fabric down over the envelope pocket. This will be the front of the clutch. Place pins on each side to mark the front fold line.

Cut the fabric for the pleated exterior about 6 inches wider and 3 times taller than the clutch. I used a black silk chiffon fabric for the pleated detailing and cut it 16inches x 15inches.

Fold the fabric in half and baste using a wide stitch. Ruching the fabric first makes it easier to pleat. To create a ruched texture, hold the bottom (bobbin side) thread while pulling the top thread.

Place the ruched fabric over the exterior of the clutch with the folded side just above the fold line of the top flap. Pin the pleats of the ruched fabric to the exterior of the clutch.

Pin the sides of the ruched/pleated fabric under the exterior fabric and interfacing.

Pin the bottom of the ruched fabric under the flap of the clutch creating pleats by following the ruches of the fabric.

Sew the pleated fabric to the exterior fabric as close to the edge of the pleating as possible.

Mark the center of the foldline for the bottom front of the clutch.

One inch above that foldine insert the back of the magnetic snap closure with the magnetic snap facing out on the exterior of the clutch.

Folding the edges under, pin the interior fabric to the interfacing about 1/8inch from the edge around the clutch leaving the bottom of the envelope flap open.

Fold the envelope flap to the magnetic snap and mark the placement location for the magenetic snap front.

Secure the front of the magnetic snap to the right side of the interior fabric. Tucking the edges under, pin the exterior fabric, ruched fabric and interior fabric along the edge.

Sew the entire perimeter of the clutch to secure the interior fabric, interfacing and exterior fabric together.

Fold up the bottom of the clutch to create the envelope pocket. Measure each side to ensure they're even.

Sew along the side edges of the pocket to secure it in place.

Fold the envelop flap down to secure it with the magnetic snap and Voila!

Well, I acutally don't have a picture of the finished product (silly me, I forgot to take a picture!) but trust me, it's super cute :) The finished products looks similar to this but with a straight envelope flap. 

Add extra adornments of beading or flowers for the perfect finishing touch!

Personalized Goodie Bags - Candy Bar

Who doesn't love candy?!? I love the idea of candy bars at wedding and thought it would be a great way to display a wide selection of yummy treats for our guests - especially since open bars often lend a need for late night snacks :)

I found the glass containers at Save on Crafts. They had so many beautiful glass containers it was hard to choose at first! Once I decided on the candy it was easier to figure out which containers would work best. Michael's had scalloped labels from Gartner Studios. I downloaded the corresponding template from their website to create the labels for each candy jar.

Paper Mart had the best selection of goodie bags (I also bought the boxes for our Welcome Boxes here). These bags are supposed to be great for printing directly on, which is fantastic! Our colors were green and gold and since the candy was primarily green I thought gold ink would be a nice touch. Unfortunately, gold ink from a regular house printer turns out more "brown" than gold. Thankfully Love to Create Stamps has the nicest owner, Todd, who designs the most gorgeous custom stamps. I have to give a shout out to Todd. He was really responsive and very helpful :)

Once I received the stamp, which was in about 5 days - again, Todd was amazing! - I bought a couple gold ink pads and started stamping away. It took a few tries to figure out exactly how to press on the stamp so everything was even. All in all, it was a fun project and nice personal touch that I was really excited to have for the wedding.

Vintage Bridal Clutches

My friend asked me to help her with some vintage bridal clutches for the bridesmaids in her best friend's wedding and I am soooo excited!
The most important aspect of creating custom orders is determining exactly what the customer is looking for. This step is imperative because the finished product should not only meet their needs but exceed their expectations. Also, it's important to remember that people inquire about custom items because they're wanting something specific. It's amazing how the word "purple" can mean 10000 different things! So, communication is key during this process and often times pictures can be the best way to convey style and color options.
My current mission is to create a vintage style clutch in spicy orange, chocolate brown and turquoise.
First, let's start with the clutch style options.
My friend found this fabulous photo of different vintage purse styles that she likes.
This was incredibly helpful because just looking at the photos I can tell that she is wanting a clutch that has a clean and classic shape. I found the following for clutches with similar styles:

Vintage 1

Vintage 2



Vintage 3



Vintage 4

Vintage 5

Vintage 6

Vintage 7

Now on to color!
Spicy Orange, Chocolate Brown, Turquoise.... How FUN!!!! As with every color, there's various undertones that dictate the actual shade it will be. Here's some swatches I found when googling these colors
"Spicy Orange"


Spicy Orange 1 - definitely yellow with a slight orange undertone



Spicy Orange 2: True bold orange with slight red undertone




Spicy Orange 3: Matte orange with rust undertone


"Chocolate Brown"


True brown



Milk chocolate brown



Brown with red undertone



Matte brown



Espresso brown


"Turquoise"
 

Light turquoise

 

Turquoise with blue undertone



Turquoise with green undertone



Dark turquoise


I thought doing a two-tone clutch with orange and brown on the exterior and turquoise on the interior would be a bold and sassy twist on these elegant styles! The great thing about any of these clutches is there's so much variety in how to implicate the two-tone look and still keep the classic style of the clutch itself.
For example, any of the envelope clutches could have an all orange fabric exterior with chocolate brown adornments such as buttons or ribbon strip. Or, the clutches could have an exterior with brown fabric on the lower portion and a spicy orange flap (or vice versa).

One example of an envelope clutch with button

Envelope clutch with ribbon strip. The flower can easily be omitted for a more classic look

It also gives an interesting look when dividing the upper and lower portions of the clutch with a middle contrast strip. This type of clutch could easily be done with orange and brown fabrics... oh! and maybe even a turquoise key fob! This is a more "modern" look, however, and might not fit the clean, classic style that my friend is going for. But, sometimes showing options of what one does not want is a good way to identify what they do want :)

Contrast envelope clutch

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project develops! I know that the finished product will be this amazing marriage of classic elegance and bold colors for some outstanding and FUN clutches :)