Do-It-Yourself Swagger

 #1: The Guide to the Hand-Made Pocket Square

If you've recently been in the market for a good pocket square, you might have noticed these miniature pieces of fabric can often be unbelievably expensive.  $90, $80, heck even a 6-pack of white cotton ones can set you back over half a Benjamin (that is if you prefer them packaged and rolled like Cuban cigars.)

So where does the madness end?  Simple.  It ends when you start using your head.  Take a look above at my prized collection of pocket squares, modeled atop a gorgeous antique piano a blessed lady down our street gave us for free this weekend.  Shapes, colors, patterns, hand-rolled edges....all staples of a beautifully hand-crafted pocket square sure to fetch anywhere from $40 to a Jimmy Roll of Jackson's in a department store (my apologies for the "gangsta currency slang" I seem to be dropping).  But what might surprise you about my lovely blazer beauties here, is that not a single one of them cost me more than $2.

How? Fabric stores, my friend.  

Now, I know what you're thinking, and you're right.  Usually these stores are packed away in some remote part of an eroding strip mall and serve to merely house elderly quilting-addicts and home-schooled superfans of Little House on the Prairie.  But if you look in the right places, (and it helps tremendously if you're married to a super-crafty sewer, like I am) you can find mountains of unique fabrics to make your pocket square dreams come true.  Raid the "fabric remnants" pile or the 50 cent swatches basket--sure some of them may need to be trimmed down or hemmed around the edges, but you'll save so much money on your new-found blazer accoutrements you won't care.  Simply stuff it in your jacket pocket and soak in the compliments.
Just make sure you pay for them first.

Some of my pocket squares in action. And a photobombing by the good Dr. Mwenzi.