diy

How To | Joined Name Banner

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

It was the Wednesday night before our Saturday engagement shoot and I get the hare-brained idea to make us a banner to use as a photo prop.

Now, before we go any further, I want to assure you this story has a happy ending, as evidenced by this awesome shot from the day of:

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography, cropping by me (mostly to remove our kissy-faces)

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography, cropping by me (mostly to remove our kissy-faces)

But it wasn’t guaranteed when I went to start.

You see, just after Christmas I treated myself to an addition to my craft room: an eCraft electronic die cutter. I’d just gotten it, and barely used it so far, but I figured I should be able to have it cut out the letters and leaves with no problem.

Yeah… Not so much. When you’re learning a new tool it helps to be smarter than the machine and the software that powers it. I know, now, what I did that made the first night so tough on myself, but it wasn’t much consolation when I spent 3 hours and I don’t even know how many sheets of card stock trying to cut out 2 sets of 9 letters. In the end, the cutter did save me a lot of time, once I got out of my own way.

Eventually I did get my letters cut out–one set of slightly larger, silhouetted dark shapes for the backgrounds and a set of speckled ivory card stock letters for the fronts. The lighter card stock just wasn’t doing it for me, plain, though, so I set them out and spritzed them with some Glimmer Mist in Burlap and Gold. At that point it was late and they had to dry, so I called it for part 1.

Adding a little dimension and sparkle never hurts.

Adding a little dimension and sparkle never hurts.

The next night it was time to dress up the letters and finish the cutting. I found a free cutting file from SVGCuts.com that had just what I was looking for: a grape leaf, and it was layered, too! Thankfully this night’s cutting went much smoother (a few hiccups, but I got the hang of it) and before long I had plenty of layered leaves cut out, assembled, and put together with the letter sets and let them dry for the night.

The leaves got scattered among the letters.

The leaves got scattered among the letters.

I also cut out the rounded squares for the letters and leaves to rest on. I found this coppery, embossed paper with grapes and leaves on it in my stash–no telling how long it had been there, but I was happy I’d hoarded it.

My canvas was thin enough where I could fold it double and still cut through with ease. I cut some extras just in case I screwed one up.

My canvas was thin enough where I could fold it double and still cut through with ease. I cut some extras just in case I screwed one up.

With this much done, though, I could finally decide how big each of my pennants needed to be and what shape would work best. Sure, the inverted triangle is pretty standard, but I’m still on a square kick so wanted something blockier. Plain squares weren’t quite right, either, so we went with a pentagon that looks like a little house upside down. I cut those shapes out of some lightweight canvas I had lying around (again, being a craft-supply-hoarder pays off) with pinking shears so I wouldn’t have to hem anything. The pentagons are 5 inches wide and 5 1/2 inches long from top edge to point.

Laid-out banner bits.

Laid-out banner bits.

Now, usually I’d spell out our names my name-his name, ladies first and all that, but I knew that with us standing to hold the banner, I’d need to be on the left if my engagement ring was to show (something I knew our photographer would prefer, if nothing else). I could have held his name and he mine, but it would have bugged me to no end, so I put his name first so it’d look right in the pictures. It works well that we have names of equal length, too, but that’s  just luck.

Mr. Road Trip was actually okay with the banner as-is, but I couldn’t leave it that plain. It just went against every decorative fiber of my being, so to the stash I went.

The grapes and leaves also got a touch of metallic watercolors for a little highlighting sparkle.

The grapes and leaves also got a touch of metallic watercolors for a little highlighting sparkle.

I started by adding some strips of lace along the top edge and added another rounded square in a darker color behind the copper to make it pop more. The other edges were still awfully bare and I was nearly out of time for night 2, and I knew there was no way I’d have time to do any stitching on Friday night. Then I remembered my beloved fabric paints and pens. A few quick swoops around the edges with green and some purple grape clusters and my edges finally looked finished.

Just hanging out, like banners do.

Just hanging out, like banners do.

Finally, Friday night, between pin-curling my hair and grabbing the rest of our props, I glued down the lace bits (something I only did for time’s sake–I’m usually quite adamant about sewing fabric to fabric) and the letter clusters and set the 1/4-inch eyelets in each corner. I had a surplus of 1″ binder rings so used those to link the individual pennants together. Turns out they stretched perfectly from one end of our mantle to the other, so that’s where they’re hanging out when not being used for wedding props.

Not counting the cutter (because it’s not strictly a wedding purchase, I plan to use it for lots of things well after the wedding crafting has passed), I spent a grand total of nothing on this project–I had all the supplies in my stash. Can’t beat that when you’re on a budget, right?

How To | Scumble-Beaded Trim and Belt, Part 2

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Getting your materials and doing the first pass of beading goes fairly quick once you get the hang of it. Now for the slightly more tedious (but way more impressive) part of the process!

The Second Pass

So you’ve scattered your larger, more precious beads along the length of your trim, now it’s time to start filling in the remaining space.

Instead of stringing one bead at a time (boring, excessively tedious, and time-consuming), you’ll work with several beads on your needle at once. Pour your filler beads into a larger bowl or section of your bead board and mix them up. To string them onto your needle, just skim the needle through the puddle of beads until you get enough of them loaded. It may take a bit of practice, but it’s really a simple thing to do once you get the hang of it.

Push the beads down the thread to meet the foundation piece, and then figure out how far your string of beads will reach before stitching through at the other end.

What things should start to look like as you work through pass two. You can still see the focal beads, but the space is filling up with overlapping strands of the filler beads.

What things should start to look like as you work through pass two. You can still see the focal beads, but the space is filling up with overlapping strands of the filler beads.

Instead of tacking down another stitch, come up alongside the line of beads you just added, cross over and stitch down on the other side, hiding the thread between two of the beads in the string. This secures the long stretches of beads and keeps the work nice and tidy instead of loose and floppy. Bring the thread up in another spare space and repeat, crossing over the previous strings and going around the beads laid down in the first pass, filling up the space as you go. Leaving some smaller open spaces is okay, though, as the tiniest beads will wait to go into the third pass.

The Third Pass

Just like the second pass, but using the smallest of beads and usually fewer at a time.

If you run into larger gaps, feel free to grab some of the leftover beads from either of the two earlier passes–after this one you should have no parts of the foundation fabric visible through the beaded fabric laid on top of it.

You can see I used a lot of the tiniest beads along the edges.

You can see I used a lot of the tiniest beads along the edges.

Depending on how long you’re making your trim, these steps can take anywhere from several hours to several days. It’s great work for sitting in front of the television. I’ve spent many of our date nights at home catching up on the DVRd shows and stitching on strand after strand of beads. The first pass of beads for my cardigan took about 4-5 hours for the almost 3 feet it required. I’d say the second and third passes easily took 10-15 more, though I didn’t keep track. Like anything, once you get used to the mechanics of the process it goes much quicker and you’ll be surprised at just how much you can get done.

Putting It All Together

For edging your dress, a jacket, or other sturdy something, the best method is just to sew it right on. If you’re worried, as I was a bit, about a more flexible fabric not being able to stand up to the weight of the beading alone, using a second length of ribbon on the back side of the fabric will help shore everything up. It worked like a dream on my cardigan.

I already own my dress, it’s hanging out in our hall closet in a ginormous dress bag along with the crinoline I ordered to go with it. Because I bought it as-is, I knew it was going to need steaming and, possibly, cleaning before the wedding. Cleaning of garments like this, at least in the realm of price, depends heavily on level of decoration–the more beading and details, the more expensive it is to have it seen to. As it stands, though, my dress is very simple and streamlined and if I leave the trim off the price will undoubtedly be lower, but I also didn’t want to have to be adjusting my dress (and risking the wrinkles) so close to the wedding. Ergo, I needed a way to easily add and remove the trim I wanted to add to the neckline.

Obviously you want to select notions closer in color to your dress.

Obviously you want to select notions closer in color to your dress.

In order to do this, I’m going to use Hooks and Eyes  just under the edge of the cuff that tops my dress, with the hooks attached to the top edge of the trim.

The small hooks & eyes are fine for the 5/8″ trim I’m making, but a sturdier piece of edging might be better attached by larger versions called skirt hooks.

Skirt hooks can also be used to attach a belt without requiring it to go all the way around your waist. I would arrange to have them hook along the top edge of the belt and then on each side where the belt ends.

Of course, there’s more than one way to make a belt.

Peek-a-belt! Hide the seems, make it look nice, and make it easy on yourself.

Peek-a-belt! Hide the seems, make it look nice, and make it easy on yourself.

To finish the belt, especially one that was stitched onto a wider fabric than the beading, first fold over any excess and stitch down. I’m opting to bridge the gap on the back side with a narrow strip of ribbon. This serves two purposes: (1) it conceals the messy stitching on the back should the belt get flipped around and (2) it creates a channel that another piece of ribbon or elastic can be fed through to be able to wear the belt. To secure it, just stitch the ends closed through the pass-through elastic or ribbon.

Right now I’m planning on the elastic approach, secured with heavy snaps in the back. I bought a dress over Christmas that had a similar treatment on its belt and it gave me plenty of ideas. I just don’t care for loose tails like most tie-on belts feature. There’s hook-and-eye tape (aka Velcro), too, but the sound of that tearing open is like nails on a chalkboard to me. You could use the same technique to make a sparkly headband with either ties or elastic joining the two ends.

Sandwich the tulle between the ribbons with a little bit extra on the end.

Sandwich the tulle between the ribbons with a little bit extra on the end.

Finally, if you’re wanting to use a bit of scumble trim on your veil or other airy materials, this is the one time I might actually suggest gluing over sewing–or at least in addition to! I’d also suggest you attach your trim a little ways in from the edge, sandwiching the tulle, etc. between two pieces of ribbon and then, once sewed and/or glued into place, trim the excess tulle flush to the edge of the trim.

Here's my dress, with the finished cardigan and the partially finished belt and cuff trim pinned into place.

Here’s my dress, with the finished cardigan and the partially finished belt and cuff trim pinned into place.

I still have to attach the hooks, etc. but I dragged my dress out of the closet to get some in-progress picks and make sure my ideas were going to work as planned. I’d say it’s a case of sew far, sew good, wouldn’t you?

How To | Scumble-Beaded Trim and Belt, Part 1

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Back when I attended a monthly knitting group I first encountered the term “scumble.” It’s just such a fun word, and while it has a very definite meaning in fine art painting, for textile work it usually means free-form or patternless work. So, even though we’ve got a bit of structure in our base and for our finished project, I like to think of this beading technique as rather scumble-y since we’re not using a repeating pattern.

Lots of little pieces, but not a big hit to the budget.

Lots of little pieces, but not a big hit to the budget.

First, gather your materials. You’ll need:

  • Ribbon or fabric that matches your color scheme. I like ribbon because it has finished edges and requires less work on my part other than measuring and cutting to have a solid foundation to work on. Furthermore, I prefer a grosgrain-style ribbon since it’s sturdy enough to hold up the beads without getting floppy on us. Satin ribbon could work in a pinch, but the tendency to snag and pull might prove problematic.
  • Beads in various sizes and/or colors. Beading like this means substantial shine, but shine comes at a price. To maximize the value in a DIY project like this one, pick out some nice beads like glass pearls, Swarovski crystals, and other high-impact gems, then pair them with simpler (and more cost-effective) filler beads like roccailes (11/o), e-beads (6/o), and bugles in your color scheme. Finally pick up some very tiny (like 15/o seed beads). As for color, you can go monochromatic or multi-colored, depending on the style you’re going for. I stuck with shades of ivory and peach for the larger beads, with clear and silver accents for the filler.
  • Needles and thread. There are beading needles out there but sometimes they’re not sturdy enough to go through the ribbon or fabric we’re using as a backing, so a simple, cheap multi-pack of needles will do just fine. You do want to make sure there are some small-eyed needles, though, as the smallest bead sizes still need to pass over them. Thread you want strong but not too thick. I used some quilting thread I had in my stash and it’s worked beautifully. Again, you want it in a matching or neutral color since you will see bits of it through the more translucent beads and, perhaps, between stitches.
  • Scissors and measuring tape.  No mystery here–you’l be doing a lot of snipping of threads and you’ll need the measuring tape to tell you how long to make your trim.
  • Bowls or a felt board with multiple sections. A felted board keeps the beads from scattering hither and yon every time you bump or move your work area, and the bowls or sections mean you can pour out your beads without mixing them up.

Once all of that has been assembled, you need to know how you’re going to use your finished trim because this is not something you can make a whole bunch of and then trim to size–you’re liable to lose beads that way and undo some work in the process. Instead, measure the garment (like, in my case, the neckline of the cardigan or the width of the front of my dress) to be adorned and then add about an inch to either end. This extra space allows you to fold some un-beaded ribbon up to make a nice, neat edge without fraying and reinforces what might otherwise be the weakest sections of the trim.

If you’re using fabric instead of ribbon, you’ll also need to cut it to the width you want, and hem the edges, too. (This is why I like ribbon.) If you’re going the ribbon route, you may not be able to find the exact width you want. For instance, I wanted a shade over an inch for my belt, but what was available in the color I needed was a full 1 1/2 inches. My solution was to use the wider ribbon but sew a line of basting stitches the width I was after to mark my edges, with the plan to fold them over and stitch the excess down once I was finished beading.

Keep in mind that this sort of beading is going to be quite heavy and quite sturdy, so if you’re planning to edge, say, your veil in this manner, you’re going to want substantially smaller beads and ribbon than if you’re making a belt, headpiece, or trim for heavy crepes and satins.

Now that we have our materials ready, let’s start the fun part: the beading!

My bead board working on the first pass.

My bead board working on the first pass.

The First Pass

Because we have a limited number of the larger, extra-sparkly beads (due to price or just plain scarcity), it makes the most sense to scatter them along the necessary length before adding anything else into the mix.

Thread a needle with a long piece of thread–I usual start with 2 feet or so–and fold it over so that it’s a workable length but do not knot the ends together. We’re only using a single thickness of thread through the beads in case another pass is required.

Make a single stitch at one end of the foundation fabric to anchor the thread and sew on the first bead. Make another single stitch at the opposite end of the bead, coming up through the fabric a little ways away from the first bead. Sew on another bead, make another single stitch, and continue in this way to add the larger beads in a random pattern along the full length of the foundation.

The extra stitches after each larger bead keep the fabric from puckering or drawing up. The other alternative is to stitch each path between the beads and that’s just asking for a headache, if you ask me.

 

The first pass, top and bottom. You'll have a whole network of crossing threads on the underside of your ribbon when you're through.

The first pass, top and bottom. You’ll have a whole network of crossing threads on the underside of your ribbon when you’re through.

Since I’d started with a finite amount of the “special” beads, I poured out half of them to be used on the cardigan trim, and the other half was saved for the dress trim and belt. At the end of the first pass on each I still had some beads left over. They didn’t go to waste, I was able to use them to fill some of the larger gaps during the second pass.

The rest of the process is coming up in the next post.

+1 Sparkly Cardigan of Arm-Covering

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

Like a lot of plus-sized brides, I’m not a huge fan of my upper arms and wear half to full sleeves pretty much year-round. The thing is, it’s not so much the size of my arms that bugs me the most, it’s the pale-yet-blotchy skin tone that makes me feel more comfortable with them covered. That and my nervous habit of scratching at my arms if they’re not covered (which doesn’t help the blotchy skin tone).

All that to say, I knew from the beginning that I would be wearing a sweater, shrug, or bolero along with my wedding dress. And that I shopped for my dress with an eye towards compatible necklines.

Since I am most comfortable in knits, and I do knit from time to time, I figured I’d be happiest if I knit my own shrug, etc. and began looking for suitable patterns ages ago. Thanks to Duchess Katherine’s second wedding look (which included a cropped angora jacket over her evening dress), Vogue Knitting dreamed up a close-enough version and offered it as a free download. As usual, the sizing wasn’t quite right for me as written, so I decided to give the pattern a go in a larger, less fuzzy yarn and different needles and see how close that got me.

Color me shocked when my test-run turned out to be a pretty close match to the shade of dress I ended up choosing, and that the pattern adjustment was just right. Happy accident, that! All that was left was some sparkle to make it wedding-worthy.

Beaded trim, if you’ve never priced it yourself, is damned expensive. For good reason, mind you; it takes a lot of work, usually by hand, to achieve just the right look, but I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that we’ve got more time than money to put towards this wedding, and I’m already pretty adept with several styles of beading.

a beaded portrait (personal photo)

a beaded portrait (personal photo)

Since we Road Trips have a standing date with our DVR on Friday nights, I’ve been working on the necessary length to edge my cardigan (a little over a yard) during those date nights–it’s nice to have something to do with my hands while we’re otherwise vegging out.

I’ll do a better how-to of it in another post, but this beading took somewhere between 15 and 20 hours to complete. I’d have to check my receipts to see how much it cost me, but I know I’ve only used half the beads I purchased (I want to do more trim for the dress, plus a belt) and I doubt I’ve spent more than $50 total, so maybe $25 in materials, but something like $300 in time (at a rate of $20 an hour–not that high for custom hand-work).

Look at it sparkle! (personal photo)

The finished trim–look at it sparkle! (personal photo)

Even though I pinned out the length of ribbon I’d need to bead to trim the sweater, after hanging for a little while the neckline had “grown” as can happen with knits. It took a couple of tries before I got the trim and knitting to match up correctly without the body of the cardigan puckering, but it worked out in the end.

You can see some of the puckers on the right that I hadn't quite fixed yet.

You can see some of the puckers on the right that I hadn’t quite fixed yet.

To make sure the beading held to the knitted edges, I placed another length of ribbon on the back side of the knitting so that the trim would have something sturdier to anchor to. This also had the effect of stabilizing the edge of the sweater–it was curling in before the trim was added.

This is what it looks like from the inside of the sweater's edge.

This is what it looks like from the inside of the sweater’s edge.

And here she is, all ready for wearing!

All done! and, see, no puckers!

All done! and, see, no puckers!

A close-up of the beading along the neckline.

A close-up of the beading along the neckline.

One of the major “rules” about bridal diy is that you don’t plan something that means acquiring additional skills or expensive equipment. Thankfully this project required neither, just a lot of time.

Have you undertaken any ambitious diy projects lately?

Make or Buy Decision: The Dress

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning
image via stock.xchng | photography by noobpriest

image via stock.xchng | photography by noobpriest

An unlimited budget is something many of us can only dream of. Dream of and drool.

Ever hear of champagne tastes and a beer pocketbook? That’s us. Actually, some days it feels more like a bottled-water budget.

But this post isn’t *strictly* about budget issues.

Back when I was in Culinary School I learned many things (obviously). One of the major points that stuck with me, though, (besides how easily one can burn off one’s eyebrows seasoning saute pans–NOT me, by the way) was the concept of the Make or Buy Decision.

Yes, I think it deserves capitalizing. It’s really that important.

In a nutshell, the Make or Buy Decision is where you have to decide if the time and materials that go into making something yourself are worth more than what it would cost to buy a comparable item from your suppliers.

You can make it yourself, but should you?

We only have so many hours in a day, days in a week and weeks in each month leading up to the wedding. Most of us are juggling work, some maybe have school thrown in. There may be children’s schedules to wrangle but there’s definitely spending non-wedding-planning time with your future spouse and very important items like sleep and taking care of yourself that have to be done. The wedding gets the rest of it.

Of those carved-out hours, we have to use them to the best of our abilities. If we’re fully capable of making our own invitations, favors, flowers and dress but only have enough hours to cover maybe 2 of those, it’s okay to outsource it. Make or Buy decision.

For me, though, it’s a clear-cut case of more time than money. With 16 months to go, I felt like I had all the time in the world compared to our small budget.

And I seriously considered sewing my own wedding dress.

After all, it’s no secret that the materials many wedding gowns are made out of cost a pittance compared to the retail price when it’s in a boutique. Lots of labor, yes, but depending on how fancy a dress you want versus the time you have available to work on it, even that might be more reasonable than paying someone else’s mark-up and overhead. What we pay for is the skill of the designer and, sometimes, a name, if that’s important to you.

It’s not to me, I just want something that looks nice on me and doesn’t blow the budget.

I gave myself until the 1-year point before I had to make the decision, but nothing in the first two dress “shopping” sessions (more like active browsing–can you call it shopping if you have no intention of buying anything?) really did anything to thrill me and I only held out marginal hope for the third appointment.

If you’ve ever thought about sewing your own wedding dress, here are some very important questions to answer before you dive in.

  1. Can you sew a straight line?
  2. Do you have access to a sewing machine and know how to use it?
  3. Have you ever made a dress before?
  4. Do you know how to read a dress pattern?
  5. Do you know how to adjust sewing patterns to fit you better or adjust a style?
  6. Do you have any familiarity with fabrics, notions, and trim?
  7. Can you sew in a zipper? And make it look nearly invisible?
  8. Have you ever applied lace or beading to a garment?
  9. Do you even like to sew?
  10. Do you have a back-up plan?

If you answered No to any of the above questions, it’s my not-so-humble opinion that making your own wedding dress is not the course for you.

The months leading up to your wedding are not the time to acquire such a demanding skill. It’s not the time to spend hundreds of dollars on specialty fabric (because you’re new at this, and probably didn’t make a muslin) only to find out you hate working with silk/chiffon/taffeta/tulle and sewing in general.

And that back-up plan? Can be anything from a friend’s dress you can borrow to paying a seamstress to fix your mistakes a month before the wedding or even going to buy something off the rack. Know, going in, that you’d better have a Plan B just in case.

But even though I’ve sewn for years, including garments that have been worn and washed many times and didn’t fall apart (an important test!), I still looked for a more ready-to-wear option before investing in fabrics and trim, but sent away for some lace samples just in case.

 Did you ever consider making your own wedding outfit?