A perfect, customized dinner party!

When you invite guests over for dinner, preparing a nice table is a nice way to welcome them.

Using the best table cloth, plates and glasses you have is a way to make your guests feel you care about them. 
Next time you invite your friends over, you could surprise them even more – you could customize your table and set it up it in the way you like it or...in the way your guests may like it!

Etsy.com is a good place to visit, when trying to find personalized items. Just as Nu-nomad offers customized bags (also!) on Etsy, so do other shops.

So, here are some interesting Etsy shops offering customized options to amaze your guests with a great table setting.

LovelyHomeIdea´s customized tablecloth

First thing you want to do is to cover your table with a nice table cloth. 

Cannot find in shops a colour you like in the size you need? You could have your new table cloth made by LovelyHomeidea. Select the colour you prefer, among the fabrics offered by the shop - all beautiful and elegant linen - and tell the measurements which you require.

TheBirdsEye´s cinderella tags

 Second thing you may want to do is to tell your friends what the menu will be.

 Though displaying a menu with food courses is something usually reserved for big events (like weddings), it could be fun - for once - to do the same for a more informal dinner party.  If you like fairy tales, you can have your customized food tags at TheBirdsEye. Cute tags, shaped like Cinderella ´s dress and princesses´crowns, will bring some joy to your table. And, of course, you will have them in a colour matching your table cloth.

Mollie´s hand painted glasses

If you were thinking about giving your friends a small party favour, maybe you could give them the glass they will be using to drink. A funny idea would be to have your friends´portait painted on wine glasses. Mollie´s would do that for you.

Plates by Zinniadesignstc

Or - if you prefer something more classical - you can have the names´ initials of your guests painted on the glasses. This is GlassPizzaz ´s specialty!

 

You could even go further and have names´initials also on the serving dishes. How? Ask Zinniadesignstc to paint them for you!


And now the final classy touch – a customized beaded serving set. This is what the shop  Weavesbeads offers. Choose the set you need (forks, knives, spoon, cake sets) and the beads´colour you like and you will have a perfect match for tablecloth and food tags. These serving sets could be also a good idea for a wedding gift or - also - to personalize your own wedding. 

But more about customizing your wedding will come in a future post...

So...ready to host a memorable dinner?  

Different fabrics for different bags – Cotton vs. Canvas

Different fabrics have different structures and properties and selecting the right fabric for the right purpose is, of course, extremely important.

If you touch the fabric of your clothes, you will easily feel that the texture of your shirt is quite different from that of your trousers or skirt. Clothing items need to adapt to your body in different ways and using cotton, linen or denim will result in a different fitting. Sometimes this is a requirement, whether it be for the season's weather (you would likely not use cotton skirts in winter) or for fitting purposes (non-stretching cotton would not be the best option for a free size dress).

Other times, instead, choosing a fabric over another could just be a matter of style.

When it comes to fabric bags, the same principles apply. Depending of what type of bag you are looking for, you may want to select a different fabric.

So, here are some tips about what fabric would work best for different bags.

Typically, a fabric bag will be made either of cotton or canvas. To be correct, canvas can be made of cotton, too. However, the name “canvas” is also often used as a generic term for heavier type of fabrics – and this what canvas will be referred to in this article.

Cotton: 

Cotton is a type of fabric which is widely used for both garments and home textiles.

Cotton meant for home textiles is typically preferred for bags. This is because this type of cotton is generally sturdier and would therefore serve the purpose better. Of course, nothing prevents you from using garment cotton for a bag. You just need to keep in mind that this would result in a less sturdy bag.

At Nu-nomad, cotton meant for home textiles is typically preferred. To give cotton more resistance, a fusible interlining is often used. The fusible interlining is a thin fiber sheet having a special glue on one side. When ironed, the glue melts and the sheet attaches to the fabric, thus making it sturdier.

Having said this, when is cotton to be preferred for a bag, then?

Cotton bags are especially good in the summer, as they look fresh and light, thus fitting better with your summer clothes. A cotton bag can be folded without effort, so that you can easily bring it with you when travelling. Also, cotton can typically stretch to some extent, so that you can fill up your bag with more stuff than you would expect.

What you should keep in mind, however, is that a cotton bag can more easily loose its original form compared to canvas, especially when constantly filled with more stuff its shape should contain.

Also, cotton is perceived as a spring – summer material and it may not fit at best with a winter jacket. But this is more a matter of personal style: you may still want a contrasting look and therefore have a cotton bag paired with a wintery woolen coat.

Canvas: 

Canvas is a type of fabric which can be made of cotton, linen, juta or hemp. The name does not refer, therefore, to its origins, as in the case of cotton and linen (which refer to the plants from which the fibers come from).

As already said, the term canvas is also often used as a generic term for heavy and sturdy fabric. Typical uses of canvas are surfaces for paintings, tents and backpacks. Cotton or cotton-linen mixed canvas is often used in home textiles, especially for making sofas and curtains. This latter canvas type is a very good choice for a bag, thanks to the beautiful texture and its sturdiness.

A bag made in canvas is typically quite resistant. Over time, the shape of the bag would keep better than that of a bag made of cotton. You can still fill the bag with a lot of stuff, but you should keep in mind that a canvas bag would stretch slightly less than a cotton one.

A bag made with canvas can also be a bit heavier in weight. Likely not as much as a bag made with leather, but still more than a cotton made one.

As for styles, canvas bags are maybe a bit more versatile than cotton bags. A canvas bag would match both your summer and winter clothes and not look inappropriate.

Now, a bag also has an interior. When choosing one to purchase or when making your own bag, you may want to take into consideration also the material used for the interior.

So, to summarize all the above, here is a simple scheme to help you choose:

1. Cotton outside and cotton inside –you will make a light bag, easy to fold, easy to fill. Not very sturdy, maybe best suited for the summer. 
2. Canvas outside and cotton inside (or viceversa) -you will make a semi-sturdy bag, still quite light in weight, but more structured than a cotton-cotton one. If you use cotton for the inside, it will be easier to fill the bag up. 
3. Canvas outside and canvas inside – you will make a sturdier bag, a bit heavier in weight, but more resistant. It will not stretch as much as a cotton bag, but it will be perfect in any season.

Hope this will be helpful. And leave a comment, if you have any!

"It is all in the shape". Customized jeans!

We all love jeans and we all know it is not always easy to find a pair which perfectly fits.

Let me correct: it has not been easy...until now!

Levi's® Curve ID line utilizes a unique, custom fit system focusing on a woman's shape and proportions. Here is the key to perfectly fitting jeans: not the size – it is all about your body shape!

When visiting a Levi´s shops offering customized jeans, a Levi´s fit specialist would take your measure and determine where your body shape falls. There are four categories: Slight, Demi, Bold and Supreme. 

The beauty of customized jeans is that you will not only find jeans fitting your body at best - you can also select your favorite wash or leg opening!

And if you do not have a Levi´s shop nearby, do not worry: you can still go online at www.us.levi.com. Here, you can take the (well made) online test to determine your shape and then decide model, color and size and...done! Your new customized jeans will cost you only around $ 50.

Now, Levi´s invented jeans, and with no doubt the brand is at the vanguard for improving the clothing piece and the shopping experience of it.

However, when making a google search for “customized jeans”, you will find a good number of online shops offering the service.

We will here review three, but you can see more of them in the links at the end of the article.

Make Your Own Jeans is one of the first shops to appear in the search. The shop offers a good selection of models, which will be made to your measurements. Pictures will show you how to take measures of waist, seat, tights, knee and so on.

Apart from jeans, at Make Your Own Jeans you can customize other clothing items, like vests, skirts, shorts, jackets.

The shop targets both women and men customers. 

On the the same line is also Indi, whose slogan is “Perfect fit Promise”. 

You start by choosing your jeans´style, you the select the fabric you prefer, the stitching thread colors and how the jeans should fit on your waist (low, average, high). 

Your selections will then be saved. Therefore, next time you want to order, you will not need to re-insert all of your information.

The last review is for Z2jeansco.com, which offers free delivery worldwide. The shop probably has the widest selection of fabrics among the reviewed shops – more than 100 variations of blue denim. 

Compared to the other shops, Z2jeans.com also allows customers to choose the type of fly, hem, style of the pockets and loops, thread and button colors.

After designing your model, you need to write down your measurements, following the instructions provided.

Our review ends here, but as already mentioned, there are many other shops offering customized jeans. 

Here is a list for additional info:

http://www.domyjeans.us/

http://www.pimpmyjeans.com/custom-shop.html

http://www.mycustomtailor.com/

http://www.ujeans.com/