bachelorette party – Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

October 10, 2017

DIY Bridesmaid T-Shirts: Sparkle Hens

My best friend and roommate-for-life just got married, so, as I’ve been saying, “my life is changed forever!”. I mean, her life changed more, but her wedding is still a pretty big marker on the map of Sam’s Life Events. My roommate-for-life has another roommate-for-life now!

It’s exciting and wonderful. We kicked off the celebration with a bachelorette party for lovely Hannah, the bride-to-be, a few weeks before the wedding, and I decided to make matching shirts for the crew.

My first big decision was shirt color. The wedding colors were dusty blue and cranberry, and since we were visiting a winery as part of the festivities, Cranberry was the obvious choice.

For the design, I went simple. I’ve always considered the term “hen party” to be silly and quaint, and I figured Hannah would agree. So the backs of the shirts got “hannah’s hens” in script – all except Hannah’s, whose shirt was emblazoned with her title of “bride-to-be”. The front of each shirt got two small hens, one at the heart and one at the hem.

I used my Silhouette cutting machine to cut the heat transfer material. I have the original Silhouette, but the Silhouette Portrait is today’s comparable model. The post for the shirts I made for Katie’s bachelorette has my tips and tricks for working with Silhouette heat transfer, but here’s the big one: don’t forget to make your lettering a mirror image before you start cutting! The heat transfer is cut adhesive-side up.

I used Cricut’s iron-on material for this project because I liked their glitter better – this glitter is silver but has flecks of lots of different colors (Amazon link). I used the same settings I would use with Silhouette heat transfer material and it worked just fine.

silhouette nesting of hen party t-shirts

I was so proud of the nesting on this!

It was a fun surprise for Hannah and my “fellow hens”. One of the girls said, “these are the classiest bachelorette shirts ever!” and – while there’s not much competition, because there’s some really trashy stuff out there these days – I was pretty pleased.

The bachelorette party was fun and low-key, and the wedding was absolutely perfect. Congratulations again, roommate-for-life – you’re the best!

March 27, 2015

bridesmaid t-shirts: gold, anchors, adorable

This must be Katie Week here at Fluffyland… I can’t help it, wedding crafting is so fun! I wanted to share the shirts I made for Katie and her bridesmaids. The seven of us spent a long weekend in South Carolina last month for her bachelorette party, and, of course, what’s a bachelorette party without kitschy matching t-shirts?

Of course, I try to keep things low on the kitsch-spectrum – well, most of the time – so my goal was to make these t-shirts as classy, and as wearable, as possible. I think I succeeded!

It was February, so we decided on long sleeve shirts. I picked up black v-necks from Target because they’re always cheap, comfy, and they actually fit.

I used my Silhouette cutter (i have the Silhouette Portrait) and their heat transfer material in white and metallic gold. Again: classy.

The backs of the t-shirts feature our last names and a number, jersey style. How’d we pick numbers, you ask? Eliza found the great idea of using the number of years we’ve known the bride. I’m happy to say I tied for the longest on this one… besides Katie’s mom, of course, who was lucky enough to sport the number 24!

The front tied into our South Carolina island/beach theme with an anchor and the wedding date.

The names and numbers were simple: I just used the font Jersey M54 and picked a good size. For the anchor, I bought the design from the Silhouette online store (design #59132, “rope sailor & anchor”), then sliced it in half and added the wedding date in Bebas font. For Katie’s anchor on the white shirt, I layered a gold anchor outline with a white anchor on top, and that really helped set hers apart.

Don’t forget to turn your design into a mirror image before you cut it! The heat transfer material cuts sticky-side UP.

Once everything was cut, it was time to iron. Iron-ons aren’t my favorite, since each shirt has to be set up carefully and separately, but lately I’ve been listening to audiobooks in the sewing room and this makes a huge difference in the amount of patience I have for tedious tasks. In this case, after a few chapters of Bossypants and a few snack breaks, I had everything ironed.

Crucial ironing tips for Silhouette heat transfer:
– Make sure to use rulers and templates so everything is straight. I used my clear grid ruler for the back of the shirts, and I used a piece of tissue paper with the V-neck notch marked to make sure every anchor was in the same location on the front.
– Use a thin cotton cloth between your iron and the iron-on material.
– Make sure to iron each location for 1-2 minutes, and don’t slide the iron back and forth. Pick up the iron and set it down each time you need to move it.
– Make sure to pre-shrink your t-shirts before adding the iron-ons. Once your shirt is finished, make sure to always wash it on cold/cold and hang to dry.

On the morning of our Charleston excursion, I rolled up the shirts name-side out to present them to the girls. By that point, the shirts’ existence wasn’t a surprise for anyone but Katie, but nobody had seen the finished product. Katie was especially excited, but I think everyone was pleased to have a matchy t-shirt that was actually wearable. We had so much fun roaming around Charleston and bragging about Katie to everyone we met!

February 18, 2015

wiwo wednesday: chasing february warmth

I spent a long weekend in South Carolina warming up. Warming up from DC’s frigid temps, and warming up for Katie’s upcoming wedding! It was a relaxing and bonding girls’ weekend, with food-stuffed bellies and joy-filled hearts.

Now that I’m back in the snow, I’m trying to savor the quiet, content moments of the trip. The grays of our last beach walk, the batting-like cushion of the clouds underneath our wings, the golden sunrises and the brilliant stars. I’m working on saving it all up, an inspiration cache.

Of course, what’s a bachelorette party – especially in the Pinterest era – without a bit of DIY? My Silhouette and I have been having fun lately. I’ll be doing a lot of white-and-lacy projects in the next few months, and I can’t wait.

Marie started wiwo wednesday: What I’m Working On. I try and join her as often as I can to give you a peek into my creative process and my works-in-progress. See all my wiwo wednesday posts here.