I posted the first half of the instructions on how to make our wedding chalkboard signs a few months ago. Here’s the second half.
The first half can be found here.
My husband actually made the frames for the signs while I did the lettering. He didn’t take any in-progress pictures, but here are the instructions.
Materials:
Instructions:
Here are some of the signs we made for our wedding.
I spent months looking for the right wedding belt. I ended up making my own.
I absolutely loved the back of my dress…the keyhole back…the button details…everything about it really. When I was trying it on, I tried on a sparkly sash with it. I really liked how the sash broke up all of the lace on my dress, but I didn’t like the idea of a giant bow covering up the back details. I also didn’t like the $300 price tag on most of the sashes. For months I looked for a small, sparkly belt that WAS NOT a sash and had diamond-looking stones all the way around it. I couldn’t find anything. Next I started hitting up my typical craft stores looking for trim to make my own belt. I struck out there, too. Finally I found shinetrim.com. This website has many rhinestone bands for a fraction of the cost of the sashes. I purchased a yard of rhinestone band (so I had extra in case I messed up) and a rhinestone clasp to go in front. I simply cut the band to fit my waist and sewed it to the clasp. It was super easy and gave the exact look that I wanted.
When I started posting wedding stuff, I should have started with this. Immediately after getting engaged, I found this adorable pin and knew that I had to proposed to my bridesmaids. This doesn’t even really count as a craft. All you do is get a small box, fill it with tissue paper, a ring pop, and a note “popping” the question. I only got to give one away in person. I had to mail the boxes to my other two bridesmaids.
An acquaintance who had been in countless wedding once showed me a crocheted blanket that a bride had made her. She gushed about how that gift was the most meaningful bridesmaid gift she had ever received. Since I crochet, I tucked that little tidbit of information away for later. When I got engaged, I pushed my fiance to help me pick out colors so I could start on the pile of blankets I was planning on making.
I decided to make blankets for our three bridesmaids and both sets of parents. I had to make five blankets, so I needed to find an afghan pattern that I could make fairly quickly. I have made many afghans that took me months to make. I didn’t have that much time. I had an afghan pattern pinned named “Super Quick Throw.” The blanket was crocheted with four strands of yarn held together as one with a giant hook. That’s about as quick as one can hope for. The blankets crocheted beautifully.
I do have a few tips:
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: About 13 movies per blanket
Overall Experience: Excellent
While searching for wedding things on Pinterest, I found many groom’s survival kits. Since I knit I really liked the idea of making socks for my groom, so he didn’t get cold feet. I put my own spin on the rest of items.
The typical groom’s kit list comes with a piece of paper that says something similar to the following:
Groom’s Day-Of Survival Kit
Looking at the list, there were lots of things I didn’t like about it:
That left me with one item. Socks. I decided to replace the items with different items that matched our personalities better. I wrote a note on a tag on each item. If you click on the pictures above you can see them. Otherwise, each note is listed below:
Each of the items (except the lip balm) was hand made, not necessarily by me:
Before our wedding, I secretly knitted a pair of socks for my husband. I gave them to him the morning of the wedding so he wouldn’t get “cold feet.” I knitted the socks using the Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn in Twilight. I loved how the color work turned out, and the yarn feels amazing. I used a free pattern available on Ravelry titled “Basic Ribbed Socks.” The pattern was easy to follow. I didn’t make any adjustments to the pattern. He married me, so I guess he didn’t get cold feet!
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: About 20 movies
Overall Experience: Good. The only thing I didn’t like is how the socks came together at the toe. The joining technique caused a slightly pointed toe.
I took a hiatus from my blog immediately prior to and following my wedding. I got crazy busy, as I assume most brides can understand. Now that all of the wedding craziness is over, I have so many things to post! I made almost all of my wedding decorations and gifts. I’m still waiting on my mom to send me my sister’s pictures (she was instructed to take pictures of everything I made for my blog), but there are a few things I can post in the mean time. I plan to kind of go in chronological order as things were used during the wedding weekend. Hopefully I don’t miss anything that way.
The first homemade item to make an appearance was my rehearsal bow-quet. It’s been a long-standing tradition that a rehearsal bouquet be created from the ribbons from the wedding shower. I made one. I’m a little unhappy that this is going to be the first thing to go on the blog. I ended up not having a ton of time to work on it and quickly threw it together the night before the rehearsal. I do think the idea would be really cute if fully implemented.
My goal was to make a whole bouquet of ribbon rosettes and wrap any leftover ribbons around the stems. Since I was short on time, I only made three rosettes and wrapped the rest of the ribbons around. The rosettes were overwhelmed by the other ribbons.
Materials:
Instructions:
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 10 minutes per rosette
Overall Experience: Good. I wish that I had time to make more rosettes
This wedding season, chalkboard signs are all the rage. However, they are quite expensive. I decided to make my own. I bought some 2’x4′ pieces of chalkboard for $10.25 per piece at Home Depot last weekend. My almost father-in-law cut them for me on his table saw. I’ve been working at lettering them this week. The larger signs will have frames around them eventually, but they are turning out too cute not to share!
Materials:
Instructions:
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 30 minutes
Overall Experience: Excellent
As I mentioned in my Chevron Koozies post, I also made a wine carrier to thank my cousin Amber for hosting my Indiana bridal shower. I made up the pattern to give wine carriers to my friends Rachael and Cassie for hosting my Houston bridal shower last month. I love how they turned out!
Materials:
Stitches Used:
Instructions:
Ch 4, sl st in first ch to make ring
R1: Ch 1, 8 sc in ring, sl st in first sc (8 sc)
R2: Ch 1, 2 sc in same stitch and in each stitch around, sl st in first sc (16 sc)
R3: Ch 1, 2 sc in same stitch, 1 sc in next stitch, * 2 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat from * around, sl st in first sc (24 sc)
R4: Ch 1, 2 sc in same stitch, 1 sc in next two stitches, 2 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in next two stitches, repeat from * around, sl st in first sc (32 sc)
R5: Holding 1 strand from each skein of yarn together through the rest of the project, ch 1, 2 sc in same stitch, 1 sc in next three stitches, 2 sc in next stitch, 1 sc in next three stitches, repeat from * around, sl st in first sc (40 sc)
R6: Ch 5, trc in same stitch, ch 1, trc in same stitch, ch 1, trc in same stitch, * ch 1, skip next 7 sc, 4 trc with a ch 1 between each trc in next sc, repeat from * four times, sl st in fourth ch of ch 5
R7: Sl st in ch space, sl st in trc, sl st in ch space, * ch 9, skip next three ch spaces, sc in next ch space, repeat from * four times, ch 5, tr trc in sl st before first ch 9
R8: Ch 5, trc in same stitch, ch 1, trc in same stitch, ch 1, trc in same stitch, * ch 1, 4 trc with a ch 1 between each trc in fifth ch of next ch 9, repeat from * four times, sl st in fourth ch of ch 5
R9-R14: Repeat R8 and R9 three times
R15: Ch 1, sc in same stitch, sc in each ch space and trc around, sl st in first sc (40 sc)
R16: Ch 1, sc in same stitch, sc in next 3 stitches, ch 13, skip next 13 stitches, sc in next 7 stitches, ch 13, skip next 13 stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, sl st in first sc
R17: Ch 1, sc in same stitch, sc in each sc and ch around, sl stitch in first sc, fasten off and work in ends (40 sc)
Difficulty: Medium to Hard (the stitches are somewhat difficult)
Time Required: 0.5 Movies
Overall Experience: Excellent
Last week I posted a pattern for an oval doily that I developed for my wedding. It almost looked circular from the outside, so I wasn’t overly happy with it. I edited the pattern, “fudging” the top and bottom stitches so they would be shorter in each round. I’m much happier with the outcome. The pattern would be absolutely ridiculous to write out. It’s quite complicated. Of anyone really, really wants it, leave me a comment and I’ll write it out. I really just wanted to share. Yay ovals!
engineeredcreations 