Wedding Gift - Beaded Bag

A colleague at work got married this month and we were invited to the evening reception. They have been together for some time so a wedding list was not wanted as such. Vouchers etc were more long term useful if people wanted to bring a gift. A very relaxing and easy way of doing things for a change.

I wanted to make something ( of course) for the bride herself. We shall call her A and she works part time with me and one of the subjects she teaches is Textiles, so I had to make something extra special. The item I chose I have not made for a while and it is my party piece for wedding gifts/ Special events etc.

Her wedding colours were off white and pink. So plenty of beads needed.

Luckily, I had many of the supplies I needed, just the pink fabric. Looked for silk, not a scrap of pink silk to be found at all! So got a nice 100% cotton instead.

This is based on a Victorian beaded reticule. These are more like little purses and originally they would have contained maybe a special hankie, tiny bottle of perfume or a little trinket.

I really enjoy making them and no two are ever the same. I got started on these after my hubby's Aunt made one for me for my wedding day, I used instead of those plastic horse shoe things.

I made one for my best friend and had a real job trying to find out what the bridesmaid colours were. Nearly got myself into bother there but once the bride saw it on the day she picked up on the fact and said that my questions made complete sense and loved the fact it linked to her wedding colours. Phew! I kept the info to myself anyway, I did not even tell my hubby what the colours were as I made it in secret.

It has a draw string fastening and the ribbon is left long enough to hook over the brides arm and hang down but not get in the way. Much nicer that those plastic horseshoes!! Luck can be added instead by adding a token inside. Oh, I forgot to do that, oh well.

A pretty gift box was found. Sophie helped me to decorate the lid, and there you go.

The brides reaction? More than I was expecting which made up for the panic during making which resulted in needing to start again twice and staying up until 1.30am on one night until I had sorted out what had gone wrong! However, it was worth every second just for the look on A's face when she opened the box. That is after all why we prefer handmade, isn't it?

Tomorrow I shall show you the very first one that I made.

xx