It’s simple: Send out the invite, reminding people of what they might have in that terrifying to-do pile (I know I tend to block it out), and set the scene:

1) Make sure you have some basic repair materials and tools including buttons, snaps, patches, needles, and a variety of thread colors — even set up your sewing machine for light fixes if you feel up to it.

2) Set out some light fare for snacking (and encourage everyone to bring something to share). Again, the theme here is no-stress!

3) Craft it out!

4) Make plans to do it again.

The result: Everyone had tons of fun and, on the efficiency scale, they were positively giddy with what they accomplished in just 1 to 2 hours. Maria managed to work four pieces back into rotation in her closet! And I finally cut out and sewed up all the embroidered softie robots I’ve been working on….But that’s for another post!

Naturally, our wedding was heavy on the personalization and DIY, low on the budget, and like most weddings, a true family affair. My sister Sophie, a graphic designer, designed the save-the-dates (we sent out a romance novel to each guest with a personalized book plate and “mark your calendar” book mark — the particular gem featured below stars a cave-dwelling gentleman protagonist-from-another-time named Thor). (You’ll notice many of the details are literary-themed — that’s what happens when a writer/editor marries an English teacher!)

The invitations were letterpressed (our big splurge) by Coeur Noir in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (can’t DIY everything–sometimes it’s better to delegate!) and also designed by Sophie.

They were envelope-free with a tear-off rsvp postcard with the prompt “What’s your story?” that allowed guests to get a little creative in their replies. (My sister Ariana’s colorful reply below.)

To answer the big question, no, I didn’t wear the T-shirt wedding dress (I had already spent a lot of time in it for the Generation T photo shoot, plus I wanted it to be a surprise!). I wore a simple on-sale J. Crew dress that I had my friend Diana Rupp help me adjust one day in her workshop while I was wearing it! She introduced me to Michelle Courtois who took me on a whirlwind trip through the garment district to purchase the materials for my birdcage veil and detachable silk flower–which she hand-crafted and made to fit. But lest you think the occasion was T-shirt free, we commissioned a special T-shirt hand silk-screened by our friends at Campfire Goods to give to the members of our wedding party…no word as to whether anyone’s done any T-shirt surgery on them! (Come to think of it, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law made 1″ punk pins for the rehearsal dinner that would be perfect to complete the Pin-up Girl halter top from Generation T: Beyond Fashion.)

And though I saved corks for a year to use as place card holders, we ended up having a buffet (no assigned seating) in the beautiful old two-story barn where we had the reception.

The buffet-style dinner was catered by Marie Gerli Catering (who I used to work for during the summers in high school!) with local fresh vegetables from the family farm up the road.

We floated the beer and wine in a pile of ice my family’s canoe, propped up on some hay bales in the barn.

I made and distributed a “Wedding Activity Book” to guests young and old so they could entertain themselves if the toasts went on too long.

I spent way too much time on it, but had a ton of fun personalizing the workbook with coloring pages, connect the dots, mazes, matching games, trivia (in the form of a GSAT, or Granite State Aptitude Test, in honor of the state I grew up in), and a homemade Mad Libs describing the proposal.

The welcome bags, decorated with a reproduction of a vintage postcard from the town where I grew up, included the activity books, packets of crayons, bottles of NH spring water, some locally made maple candies, and directions to all the fun hikes, swimming holes, and the 24-hour ice cream spot, of course.

My father-in-law, an interior decorator with a real green thumb, created simple bouquets of dahlias for me and my bridesmaids and groom’s lady.

He was also the mastermind behind the beautiful flower arrangements at the ceremony site. He found a bunch of bamboo tiki torches that he brilliantly repurposed into flower containers to line the aisle in the field. (Mr. T and I got married under that big oak tree.)

My mom and I saved and collected tins and mason jars for months to use for the flower arrangements on the tables.

My brother Franz, a musician, composed the processional (the recessional was The Clash’s London Calling, which he arranged for string quartet). Our friends from the Anti-Social Music collective made up the quartet who played at the ceremony and at the reception at the barn.

Our guest book, a scroll of paper fed through the Hermes 3000 portable typewriter my dad received as a gift for his high school graduation, was an homage to my Oma and Opa, who ran a typewriter and office machinery business out of their home for all the decades I knew them!

Mr. T spent hours creating the ultimate playlist (we went DIY iPod-style and borrowed speakers from a friend). And we did opt for the ubiquitous wedding CD (yes, those are hand-stamped labels) — we love music and wanted to share some of our favorite tunes so people could take the dance party home.

Our photographer, the incredibly talented Brooke Mayo, whose photographs you see here, submitted the photos to Brides Magazine, where selected shots and details appeared in May 2009!

My ladies wore brown cowboy boots and red dresses! I strung a necklace of natural pearls for each of them to accessorize with.

Here are the details the Brides thought were most notable: The flowers! The tree! The lights! The barn! The cupcakes! The invites! Our friend Pat, who often sports a mohawk and plays a mean cello!

It was an amazing day, filled with wonderful handmade details–so  thanks for indulging me, and giving me the opportunity to reminisce!

And even though I’m well past planning my own wedding, I love attending others’ events so I can take note of my favorite DIY details! What about you? Any tips or favorite party details to share with the Generation T community?

Materials:

Make it:
1. Gather the materials and choose a theme! (Chloe picked cowboy.) Sketch the design. (We sketched a cowboy boot that she borrowed from my closet.)

2. Transfer the design to the T-shirt sleeve fabric and gently (so it doesn’t distort the design) stretch the fabric in the embroidery hoop. (Note: Many people use stabilizer at this stage to prevent stretching, but we didn’t have any on hand, so just worked the fabric very gently.) Stitch the outline of the design.

3. Stitch the interior of the design. Then remove the fabric from the hoop and cut around the design, leaving a 1/4″ allowance, to make a patch.

4. Pin and sew the patch through only one layer of the front or back of the onesie. (Note: We stitched along the boot outline with matching regular thread so it wasn’t visible.) Optional: Stitch the recipient’s name or initial to personalize the garment.

5. Then tie off all the ends, remove any remaining pins, and wrap it up for the adorable recipient! Here’s baby Max, the littlest cowboy. Yee-haw!

I first read (or rather observed the cuteness) of these little pastries over at Bakerella this summer, then followed the strand back to Luxirare, where I saw the whole beautiful story unfold. I generally like small desserts that allow me to try multiple flavors. Think cookies–the perfect way to taste a dozen little desserts at once. I also like pie–a lot. Mr. T and I would have had pie at our wedding reception except there was no way we could decide on any single flavor. So we enjoyed four flavors of cupcakes instead–chocolate, red velvet, carrot cake, and lemon poppyseed. In retrospect, we could have had multiple pie flavors; I just would have insisted on eating at least four slices of pie.

This is all to say, I wish these pie pops had been discovered sooner! Because they’re the perfect opportunity to taste many a pie filling in one sitting. I followed Bakerella’s photo tutorial, with a few variations of my own: 1) I used Betty Crocker pie crust mix (add water and roll out) since I couldn’t find the pre-rolled dough at my grocery store. 2) Bakerella’s comment that hers came out too doughy (filling-to-crust-ratio was leaning too much toward the crust) inspired me to roll out my dough thinner–I actually got 15 pops out of dough I rolled out for a 9″ pie, and overstuffed the centers with filling. 3) Rather than using (or mixing up) traditional pie filling, I used my all-time favorite fruit spread, Spoon Fruit from American Spoon Foods. I used Cherry-Berry, Strawberry, Blueberry, and Sour Cherry–I particularly love these because they aren’t sweetened with sugar, just all real chunks of fruit. My grandmother, Maja, introduced them to me a dozen years ago and always sent me a gift box every Valentine’s Day. My mom has since taken over the tradition, so I had a cupboard full of jars to choose from. 4) I also made a couple of chocolate-hazelnut filled pops using Creme de Noisette by Pralus Master Chocolatier, a recent indulgence that’s proving to be habit-forming. Packaged in a squeeze tube, and easily mistaken for hair product if it wasn’t in a cupboard over the stove, it’s basically a gourmet Nutella made with all real ingredients–eating a bowl of Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream hasn’t been the same since I bought my first tube of this stuff.

The Pie Pops recipe has already been well-documented as I noted and linked above, so I’ve decide to offer an illustrated tutorial to complement all that’s come before. Enjoy.

1. Follow the directions on the pie crust mix to make a ball of dough.

2. Flour your work surface and roll out the dough about 1/8″ thick.

3. Use a round cookie cutter about 2 1/2″ in diameter to cut out an even number of dough discs. (Roll your dough scraps back into a ball and repeat steps 2 and 3 until all dough has been used.)

4. Arrange half of the discs on the cookie sheet and press a lollipop stick into each.

5. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons of Spoon Fruit or 1 teaspoon of Creme de Noisette into the center of each disc on the sheet.

6. One at a time, gently lay the dough discs that remain over the filling and the end of the pop stick. Pinch the ends closed by gently pressing with the tines of a fork.

7. Brush the tops with egg white and stick in the oven for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

8. Let cool and…eat! (And be sure to try every flavor.)

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make these available to you in time for all of your DIY Christmas gift giving, but fortunately, we give gifts year round (they’re called birthdays, graduations, mothers/fathers/grandparents days, and so on… and yes, that reddish holiday I mentioned above called Valentine’s).

So, to ring in this new year–nay, new decade–of celebrating, I’d like to introduce a brand-spanking new feature that I made for you — free downloads of printable tags that you can add to your handmade Generation T gift, so the recipient knows they’re getting a Generation T original — made by you!

They’re super easy to use. Just click on the appropriate book title in the “Free Downloads” icon in the right column of the website. The files are PDFs, so make sure you have a program that will open them. Then hit “print” and follow the directions to cut out, hole punch, sign, and attach, and you’re good to go!

Happy giving,

Megan & Generation T

1. Tear the scissors stencil page from the book (it’s perforated) and trace it with a pencil on a piece of parchment paper. 2. Use a craft knife to cut around the traced marks until the parchment paper stencil matches the original.

3. Place the new (food-safe) stencil over the top of the frosted cake (or brownies). Note: Frosting is recommended because it will hold the powder better (cocoa powder for light-colored frosting, confectioner’s sugar for dark-colored frosting) than a plain cake surface. 4. Gently and evenly powder the cake surface, going over the stencil.

5. Peel back the parchment paper, careful not to spill the sugar collected on the stencil. 6. Ta-da! Serve it up to all your DIY besties!

**Thanks again to Ed Roth of Stencil 1 for this great idea from his book Stencil 101. And stay tuned! He’s got a new book, Stencil 101 Decor, featuring 10 original plastic stencils (the first book has cardboard), due out in October 2009.

Then I drew in some extra swirls and started stitching! Satin stitch on the inside of the Gs, split stitch for the outlines and swirls, running stitch around the edge (reinforced by a machine stitch underneath), and a couple little knots to sew the ribbon on in the center.

I also added an elastic strap on the underside so it would stay put on the ring bearer’s hand. Here it is in action:

For those of you keeping a tally, this is my seventh embroidery project (a cloud pillow, a day of the dead skull, a World/Inferno band logo tie, a golden ratio tie, a pair of valentine swap personalized panties, an apron, and a ring pillow!) Any suggestions for what should come next?

Oh, a girl can dream…but for now, I make do using the floor of our small apartment, swapping out my laptop from our shared desk to make room for the sewing machine on the occasion that there’s a pair of pants to hem or a T-shirt to refashion!

What does your dream studio look like? And ooh, let’s make this desert-island-y: If you were stranded in your magnificent design/work studio, what three items would you have with you?

In any case, I’ve had to wait to post this, my most recent DIY project, so I didn’t spoil the surprise. Mr. T turned 30 today and I finally got to share the project that, with more than a few setbacks, took me more than a year to make. It started as a Christmas present, then was pushed to an anniversary present, then a (29th) birthday present, then a wedding present, then back to Christmas, anniversary, and finally…birthday! Mr. T loves to cook-he likes to chop and mix ingredients like I like to cut and sew. But he doesn’t have an apron…and you know I can’t settle for just a plain old apron. So I thought: What does an English-teaching food-lover need from such a garment (besides keeping his clothes splatter free)? Combining his love of syntax and symbolism with his love of sautéing and seasoning, I set out to find quotations from some of his favorite writers and chefs on the subject of food, eating, dining, cooking, and other related exploits, and freehand embroider them across the bottom of the apron. Whew, did I ever bite off more than I could chew! (So to speak.)

But here it is, already complete with some sauce splatters, and despite the blisters on my fingers, I’m quite proud!

If you’re interested in throwing your own underwear exchange party (sorry, the word “panty” has the tendency to make me cringe a little), here’s how:

About two weeks in advance, email everyone (for comfort, start with ladies only!) who you’d like to participate to see who’s game. When they respond, make sure they include their underwear size and style preference . Once you have a complete list, invite a third party (someone who’s not participating) to act as the moderator: She draws the names and creates the secret matches (you should only know the name of the person you draw, not the person who draws you), then emails each party participant at least a week in advance so everyone has ample time to purchase, make, or decorate her two pairs of undies. On game day, wrap your two gifts with the recipient’s name on them. One person starts by opening her gift, and tries to guess who it’s from!