This week for our DIY weddings series, Spoonflower team members Abbey and Sharon share how they created simple Cotton Silk and Kona® Cotton pocket squares for the groom and groomsmen.
When thinking of DIY wedding projects, we thought about what we would love to make with Spoonflower resources for our own weddings. We decided that custom pocket squares for the groom and groomsmen would be a nice, personal touch that is relatively easy to do.
One of the best aspects of Spoonflower is the variety of fabrics you can choose to print on, so we decided it would be fun to show the same personalized design on two different fabrics: Cotton Silk and Kona Cotton. Cotton Silk would be suitable for a more formal wedding and the Kona Cotton suitable for a less traditional wedding.
We’ve based the design on the invitation of our fabulous, fictitious couple, Keira and Matthew.
To start your pocket square design, open up a new Photoshop document. We wanted a small repeat so our image size was 0.5” x 0.5” at 150 DPI, RGB color.
When you are done designing your motif to be repeated on the pocket square, don’t forget to save your file as a .jpeg image.
After setting up your design, follow the directions to upload on Spoonflower and select your repeat. We chose the half-brick repeat to make it look more like a pattern.
When ordering, keep in mind the size of the pocket square that you want as well as how many you will need for your wedding party. We recommend cutting a 16×16 inch square for the Cotton Silk, and a 13×13 inch or smaller square for the Kona Cotton, since it is a thicker fabric. You can fit four 16×16 inch squares on one yard of Cotton Silk, and six 13×13 inch squares on one yard of Kona Cotton. If you only want one pocket square, feel free to order a fat quarter!
Once you get your fabric, iron it and then cut it to size with a seam allowance of half an inch. If you have a hem foot on your sewing machine, it’s easier to hem the pocket squares, especially Cotton Silk. Simply iron a quarter of an inch seam allowance and feed it into the foot. If you don’t have a hem foot you will want to fold it over a quarter of an inch twice as narrowly as you can and straight stitch for a rolled hem. You’ll want a thin hem for pocket squares.
Once sewn, the finished pocket squares should measure approximately 15×15 inches (Cotton Silk) or 12×12 inches (Kona Cotton). Iron the pocket squares again, choose your favorite fold, and add your dapper groom and groomsmen!
About Our Guest Bloggers
Abbey and Sharon are good friends who enjoy crafting and eating lunch together. Abbey enjoys traveling with her husband, designing things for friends, and drinking chai lattes to get her creative brain in gear. Sharon spends most of her time thinking of what and where to eat, making paper crafts, and exploring Durham. Together they share fruit snacks daily, as Sharon eats the red gummies and Abbey enjoys the blue ones.
You don’t have cotton-silk any more.