Stitching for a Star! 

Styling a First-Class Stirling Graduation Party 

Another graduation season is here, and this past weekend was an incredibly special one. Our son, George, hosted a spectacular graduation party to toast his wonderful girlfriend, Emma, on a truly magnificent achievement - she got a First! As if that wasn't enough to celebrate, she has also already secured a job at Durham University. After three years of hard work on her part, and a massive amount of secret sewing on mine, the weather held out, the drinks flowed, and she had the celebratory send-off into the next chapter that she so richly deserves.

Whilst George offered to host, I couldn't resist jumping right in to take on the event styling! If you saw last year's graduation post, you'll definitely recognise a few elements. I had to paint, adapt, and upcycle though, as Stirling's university colours are green, whilst Stephenson's are red!

Fortunately, we live near a huge Amazon distribution centre that regularly donates unsold stock straight to our local charity shops. It is the absolute ultimate upcycling loophole! It meant I could justify sourcing additional theme-specific decorations and a mountain of balloons, knowing they were rescued items. The shops were also brimming with fantastic glassware and teddy bears, which I was once again all too happy to snap up and give a new lease of life to.

A mannequin display looked right at home next to George's brilliant 'First Class Photos' prop sign! The head was originally a tacky white polystyrene number, but with the addition of some vintage encyclopaedia pages and patterned napkins decoupaged onto it, it was completely transformed. I actually made it for last year's party using the exact step-by-step napkin decoupage technique I shared on the blog all the way back in January 2014, so it felt wonderful to see it repurposed for another special occasion. Dressed up in a mortarboard and glitzy 2026 glasses, it made the perfect quirky addition to the windowsill!

We knew a Stirling graduation party definitely needed a nod to the famous campus red squirrels, so my first string of bunting featured free-motion appliquéd characters at either end of the 'STIRLING' flags, all hand-cut to the perfect size to hang across the mantelpiece.

I had also stitched over 120 feet of classic chintzy floral bunting to give the garden a traditional British garden party vibe, but heavy rain during the morning setup meant we didn't bother putting it up. Luckily, I had made plenty of indoor alternatives. The 'LET'S PARTY' garland looked right at home under the kitchen clock, whilst a 'STIRLING 2026' banner hung beneath the window balloon arch, just above where the buffet table would be. Finally, a 'FIRST CLASS GIRL' banner made an appearance across the bookcase—a very fitting tribute to Emma's brilliant degree result!

Next up were the graduation teddy bears and, being sourced from various local charity shops, they were all wonderfully different shapes and sizes! The miniature gowns and mortarboards were pre-loved finds from eBay, but I added custom '2026' tassels to bring them right up to date.

The t-shirts, however, were a bit of a saga. I initially attempted to make one myself by cutting up an old top of mine and hand-embroidering 'Stirling 2026' across the front. After George kindly informed me that my prototype looked completely hideous, I swiftly admitted defeat! Instead, I took the design to a lovely local Durham business to have them printed properly, and they turned out beautifully.

I think it is probably fairly obvious that I get rather focused when I have a project to work on, so I didn't stop at bears. Months were spent keeping our eyes peeled in charity shops specifically to find soft-toy squirrels! Once we’d tracked enough of them down, they were given their own tiny mortarboards and matching 2026 green tassels. They were very cute, but the graduates weren't overly keen on them, so the hats will be removed and they will be going back to the charity shop!

Rather more popular was the sweet station and ice cream buffet! We set up an great spread of toppings, cones, and treats, complete with custom posters designed by George. To keep things eco-friendly, I used last year's collection of glassware - a mix of empty preserve jars and charity shop find - making the containers entirely recycled, free, or donation-based.

Each jar was then styled with ribbons in the black, green, gold, and tartan theme. The final flourish was provided by the punning labels. They were admittedly pretty lame, but we had fun coming up with them! A couple of my favourites were 'Percy-verence Pays Off' for Marks and Spencer's iconic Percy Pig sweets, and 'The Wallace Monu-Mint' for Mint Matchmakers!

The preparations were finished with some custom balloon art. The only element I did myself was based on a pack of Amazon-donated baby shower balloon boxes - although when I opened the pack, it was one box short! Whilst I wouldn't have used the original 'BABY' letters anyway, I had been hoping to use the boxes to spell out ‘GRAD’.

Being one box short for a four-letter word, necessity became the mother of invention! I instead stacked them in a pyramid arrangement, cutting '20' and '26' in black card to go across the lower two, and then topped the third box with an upcycled cake topper. It ended up looking like a perfectly intentional, tiered display!

If you have ever priced up professional balloon installations, you’ll know they can cost an absolute fortune. George took on the challenge and created his own spectacular versions instead! Whilst I usually steer clear of balloons due to their environmental impact, I made an exception here as we were using pre-loved items donated to the charity shop. George applied his mathematical brain to the task with incredible results, crafting huge installations for the front of the house and stunning photo backdrops both in the garden and indoors. By mixing structured, classic spirals with a modern, 'organic' layout of varying sizes, he perfectly tied every element together and elevated the entire party to a professional standard, brilliantly capturing our Stirling colour scheme throughout.

After such a wonderful afternoon, a spontaneous living room disco got the youngsters in the mood for the long night ahead. They headed into Durham for some serious hard drinking and partying, whilst we were more than ready to collapse into bed!

Thanks Greg!!