Special Wedding Keepsakes

 My niece had a lovely wedding at the beach last Christmas and I had a grand time helping her and her mom create special touches for the wedding. They searched the internet for a ring bearer pillow and couldn't find anything like they liked so they asked me to create one for them. It had been a very long time since I had made a pillow but I got busy! Here is a picture of the finshed product.

I used white Maline lace, white pima batiste, white entredeux, Mother of Pearl buttons, and white satin ribbon.
Here is a picture of the back of the pillow.

An elastic enclosed band  was added to the back so the young ring bearer would have something to hold onto and hopefully not drop the pillow! The body of the pillow measured 8" x 8" and ended up being the perfect size.

The bride also wanted custom handkerchiefs for herself, her mother, groom's mother, plus the groom's grandmother. I decided the father of the bride would definitely need a handkerchief! The female handkerchiefs were made using linen fabric, hemstitching, and french Val lace. The blue thread used coordinated with the bridesmaid's dresses and other wedding colors.

The handchief for the father-of-the-groom was different. I didn't think he would be too thrilled with lace on his handkerchief so I made one of my linen hemmed and hemstitched handkerchiefs. Here it looked and he definitely needed it before and during the ceremony for some happy tears.

When I sent the package to the bride before the wedding, I included a few surprises. I made a lovely set of garters for her to wear. One for her to wear and save as a keepsake and one to wear and throw at the reception.

Something I did for my daughter when she married last summer (another post about it later) was make a custom satin ribbon label for her wedding dress. I thought my niece needed one, too. In addtion to a label for her dress, I made two more labels for the father of the bride and groom ties. She loved the special touch. Again, I used the same blue font font used on the handkerchiefs. I hand stitched them into the garments after I arrived a few days before the wedding.

Below is a picture of everything before it was shipping to my niece. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the special items I made for the wedding. Handerchiefs can be ordered from my Etsy shop Monogram Elegance

Monogram Gifts

It has been a long time since my last blog ….. too long. Along with personalizing gifts from my baby store, The Polka Dot Store, and my Etsy Store, Monogram Elegance, I monogram for friends and family. Holidays and weddings keep me busy!. Here are a few images of some of my work. The first picture is a set of pajamas given as a bridesmaid gift. The Sydney font and red thread was used for the initial.

This is a picture of a set of blankets a friend gave her nieces as gifts. They turned out so cute and her nieces love them!

Pink dresses and blankets were fun to create for micro preemie twins born in October. Preemie’s in the NICU have monitors and wires so the neck is made adjustable with gathers and ribbon. The back is left open and the ribbon woven through the smocking ties the dress closed in the back. The sleeves are angle sleeves style allowing for tubes to be placed through them. If you are interested in making "Wee Care" gowns for hospitals, here is a link Smocking Guild Wee Care Program . The dress is made from 100% cotton sateen fabric and is personalized above the hem with the letter "E" in Vine Font. The blanket was made using 100% soft cotton flannel fabric and lined in Imperial Batiste fabric.

A visit to see a friend prompted making this cute pillow with her zip code appliqued on the front. The pillow is made from ivory cotton canvas fabric and I used gray burlap fabric for the piping and applique. It looks great on her sofa!

I hope you get some great ideas from the pictures. More gift ideas will be posted in a later blog. Visit The Polka Dot Store for all your baby gifts and Monogram Elegance on Etsy for you wedding, graduation, birthday, and Christening gifts.