Crafty Details from my Hen Parties

I blogged about my Papered Parlour Hen Party back in August. Here is a little reminder of the bags we made.

I really wanted to add some fabric and stitch detail to my design but was out of action following my hand operation at the time. The wedding then took over and I didn't have the spare time. I have now finally finished my bag by adding some appliquéd fabric bunting flags to my printed ones, some appliquéd fabric leaves on the tree and some simple stitch lines. I have also stitched some text and the date on the reverse.

With two of my bridesmaids being children (aged 5 years and 20 months) I felt I had the perfect excuse for a second hen party! I therefore organised a Bridesmaid's Tea Party and invited all three of my bridesmaids and their families. We had a wonderful time playing in the garden, eating cakes and ice lollies and making imaginary cups of tea with our new tea set!

(Handmade mini muffins - we soon polished these off between us!)

I handmade the invitations for this tea party based on our sage green and chocolate colour theme adding lots of pink and flowers to make them suitably girly. The images below show details of the face and reverse. I hand-embroidered the design and added appliqué detail before scanning it in to the computer and creating a design for the reverse. The final invitations had a printed version of this embroidered design on the face and a personalised reverse all mounted on a chocolate card base. My finishing touch was to hand-stitch tiny buttons on as the cherries on the cupcakes.

(Face)

(Reverse - Fanchesca's Mum had her own invitation as my chief Bridesmaid!)

Handmade Teatime Bunting

I have been making cheery teatime themed bunting recently and finally listed it in my Folksy shop today. This perfect addition to any party or picnic has teatime themed appliqué motifs, ribbon, ric-rac trim and hand-embroidered detail.

There are nine carefully handmade and decorated flags on each length of bunting. The flags have been secured 3cm apart creating a lovely fluttering of colour on the sugary pink tape header. Each flag measures approx. W.14cm by H.15.5cm. The total length of the bunting (excluding ties) is approx. 148cm and the generous ties at each end measure approx. 38cm.