Jam Wedding Favours

I have been researching some ideas for a rustic wedding and I just have to share a gorgeous favour with you. Jam jar favours really bring home the theme of a rustic wedding.  Here are some images and a quick how to.

How to make Jam

Serve in recycled jars or purchase glass jars (125ml).  Add some gingham or hessian to the lid and tie together with a ribbon of your choice.  Attach a label thanking people for coming to your wedding, or have some fun and add sentences like “spread the love.” Remember to add your names and the date of your wedding.  You can use any fruit to make the jam below.  The recipe below will only make 10 cups, so if you have 100 guests, you can either enlist some family members or do it in stages.  The jam will be preserved in the jars.

Ingredients

• 1.4 kg peaches or indigenous fruit
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• 5 cups sugar

Directions

1.  Wash, peel, pit and chop peaches-you want 10 cups.
2.  Place all ingredients in a large glass bowl and let stand for 1 hour.
3.  Transfer to a large stainless or enamel pot.
4.  Bring to a full boil.
5.  Boil for 25 minutes to reach the jelly point-stir often and then constantly as the mixture nears the jell point.
6.  Remove and skim off foam.
7. Place jars in the oven, until they are hot.
8.  Ladle the jam into clean hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.
9.  Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
10. Decorate the lid and add the labels when the jar has cooled.
11. Your jam is ready to be presented on the tables at your wedding.

Glass jars: R3.00

Jam ingredients: R400

Sticky paper for labels: R50

Fabric: R50

Your time: free

Total cost for each jam favour @ 100 guests: R8.00

Hope you enjoy making these favours.  Come back soon for more D.I.Y. wedding favour ideas.

Lots of Love

Faye

Crafts

I had a great day yesterday.  I put my laptop aside and decided to haul out my now deceased granny's sewing machine.  I have to admit that I have a modern sewing machine, but I love using her 1800's Singer.  I am self taught, so my advice is probably not brilliant and there are going to be some seamstresses out there that will shudder at my advice.  At the end of the day, though, it all came together in the easiest possible way and I have to share my sewing adventure with you.

I am a self professed "jeans girl" and I have many pairs that have either dated or dont fit me anymore. With this in mind and the idea that once you have worn your wedding dress and do not want to donate it to charity or a second hand store, try the next most traumatic thing, cut it up.  Wow, that must sound terrible, but with upcycling (turning something old into something new) you can create a gorgeous patchwork quilt for your baby, which lets face it, is your next journey.

One pair of jeans were then cut, by myself, into 5 inch squares.  The pockets were put to the side, just in case, I found a use for them later on.  Placing two squares, right side facing each other, I sewed as close to the edge as possible. I then opened them up and proceeded to sew another square to the open square as before.  I did 4 squares in a row, twice and then hemmed the two sets of four together in the same way as I had done before with two individual squares.  Turning them right side up, they made a gorgeous denim patchwork.  Once I had completed enough rows of 4 squares, always connecting them to the previous squares, I turned the patchwork inside out and simply hemmed the outer edges together, leaving the top section open, to insert the cushion.  I then took a pair of old white pants and cut out a heart and hemmed the edges inward.

Turning the patchwork inside out again, so that the right side was showing, I then hand stitched the heart to the denim patchwork cushion.  I could not stop there and pulled some lime green wool from the cupboard and tacked it all the way around the heart.  Button holes were cut into the one open side and stitched.  Lime Green buttons were then stitched to the opposite side and the cushion was placed into the patchwork cover.  I closed the buttons and a gorgeous cushion is now on my daughters bed.

As soon as I have taken some photographs, I will post them.

Try it with your old wedding dress and cut squares from the fabric. Sew them together in groups of two and then four and so on until you have the width you require for the quilt.  Continue to make rows and then stitch them together.  If you are making a quilt, use an old sheet and stitch the patchwork to the sheet.  If you have various fabrics on your dress or fabrics from your decor, cut shapes out of them and either place shapes into the individual squares or onto the quilt as a whole.  This will make a gorgeous baby blanket made with love and very special fabric, your wedding dress.

Hope you try it and I know that you will love it.

Faye

How to carry on in a warming world

How to carry on in a warming world