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Deacon's First Email

This is Deacon's first ever email.  We were making arrangements to head to dinner at the home of our friends Stephen and Erica.  Deacon dictated this message to them.  Ellie served as amanuensis. 

Dear Stephen and Erica,

Come stay to your house the longest.  Stephen and Erica come to my house next.  Play games with me at my house and I want to play games at your house too.  Stephen and Erica go run with me outside of my house and yours.  Stephen and Erica Go!  I don't want Erica to run.  Going is a race sport.  I want to run with Stephen.  Stephen's great at running.  Stephen go fast!  Stephen and Erica I want you to run and jump.  I want Stephen to do those things.  Erica can't do those things.  It's too hard for her.  I think stephen is the best.  Erica is pretty.  I love her.  I don't like to eat Stephen and Erica.  Grown-ups are yucky.  Toys are yucky too.  That's all.

Love, 

Deacon

Showcase Fridays

I'm going to try and start sharing some of the great photos that I receive from you wearing my bow ties each Friday.  

Here's a great shot of David wearing the Benjamin Madras bow tie which is unfortunately sold out.  David blogged about his second time ever wearing a bow tie recently.  Here's a quote from his post:

There's a doctor in the building at work who has a "friendy mutton chops" beard and wears a bow tie everyday.  I happened to walk by him today in the hall and we gave each other a head nod as to say "Yes, we may look like knuckelheads with our bow ties but we are also pretty damn awesome because we can pull it off."  We said all that in a nod, it was powerful.

Please e-mail me your pictures wearing The Cordial Churchman bow ties and I'll share them every Friday.

Win a Free Bow Tie

All you have to do is head over to my STORE and choose your favorite and post it in the comments section below!  I will close comments on Monday August 23 at 11:59pm.  Bonus entry if you blog the above photo with a link to my store - Just post the link of your blog post in a separate comment.  

I will be approving all comments so don't worry if it doesn't show up right away.

Good Luck!

Fall Update and freebies

I've promised myself that I will not go to bed until I have the fall line up for sale on my website.  I went outside in the hot South Carolina sun/stickiness to take some pictures today of many warm looking bow ties.  Here's a preview:

I'll also finally be listing the long-awaited square end neck ties.  I've got a few samples made up but I'm planning to offer it in 6 different wool options as well as gray chambray, blue chambray and madras.  AND - I have a very special freebie for every gentleman who purchases the straight end neck tie while supplies last.  More details on that tomorrow.

Finally, I'll be giving away one bow tie this week on my blog to celebrate my listing of all these new wonderful bow ties.  More details on that again tomorrow!  I'm so excited to switch gears for fall.  I'm really ready - now if only the South Carolina weather would follow suit.

Another Cordial Wedding in Green Seersucker

I'm crazy about these new images I just received from another Cordial Wedding.  They are wearing the green seersucker bow ties for a wedding on the beach.  What a great looking bunch.

Pocket Squares are listed

I've listed my pocket squares on my website now.  There are only 4 of each fabric available and I'm not likely to have another product like this for a while so get them while you can.  Here's the LINK.

A Quilt for Baby M

Here's a little baby quilt I sewed for a friend's baby girl due next month.  It was actually really fun to make.  I could see making more baby quilts for gifts in my future.  I didn't really follow a pattern for this one, I just used the fabrics to tell me  what to do.  The squares around the end are machine quilted with random swirly lines.  I quilted around the pattern of the fabric for large middle square.  I think it turned out alright for my first quilting attempt.  There are imperfections but that just proves it's hand-made.

The Back

I always love sewing my label into all the things I make.

Hand-Rolled Pocket Squares

Edited 7-10 - These are now available on the online store: http://thecordialchurchman.bigcartel.com/product/hand-rolled-pocket-squares-limited-edition

I've been spending quite a bit of time traveling in the car lately.  What does one do with all that time, traveling from South Carolina to Ohio and back?  For me, the answer is: I've been making some hand-rolled, hand-sewn pocket squares while riding shotgun.  

Behold, the madras square in all it's simple glory.

Andy was being a big Presbyterian dork and followed the twitter feed for the General Assembly of a Presby denomination he doesn't even belong to.  One of the sartorial observations from that GA was the following: "Apparently the pocket square is the new bow tie."  While we here at The Cordial Churchman want to insist that this is a both/and rather than an either/or scenario, it is nevertheless true that a pocket square even without neckwear spices things up nicely.  You're almost as certain--if not more certain--to be the only one in a room rocking a pocket square as you are to be the only one rocking a bow tie.  

Mr. Churchman himself came with me to the cloth store and chose the fabrics.  He picked out a couple of madras fabrics, a white tone-on-tone seersucker, a blue chambray and a blue/green gingham.  I'll be able to make about 4 of each fabric, so they'll be a limited edition.  These squares will be carefully hand-sewn with a nice plump roll.   $26. 

EDITED- These squares are now listed on my online store:

http://thecordialchurchman.bigcartel.com/product/hand-rolled-pocket-squares-limited-edition

The Square End Neck Tie from TCC

So here's the newest thing I've been working on and I'm really in love with these square end neck ties!  I think they are so fun to make and look so good on my husband!  I made him the one below for a fathers day present and have made a few more since then.  I will try to get them listed on my website soon.  What do you think of them? 

Since everyone has an opinion on how I price my items (most people tell me I should raise them, but i resist).   I'm curious what you have to say.  If you are the kind of person who would purchase this for a gift or for yourself and you'd like to suggest a reasonable price knowing it is handmade and mostly sewn by hand, please e-mail me at ellielaveer@gmail.com and share your thoughts with me.  I'd love to hear them!

Store Update

I've just update my online store with a few more madras, linen and seersucker fabrics.  I think you'll like them!  Please hop over there and check them all out.  The update includes the one I introduced last week - the Ryan Seersucker/Madras reversible bow tie.