Work Home and Family - Mother's Day Gifts! (Homemade Gifts Parts 10-12)

I feel like I'm sort of starting to get a handle on things again - my health has been pretty good this week, we have company right now (which means Mom does my ironing - thanks SO MUCH Mom!) and we're almost done with the semester! YAY!  Plus, the weather has been beautiful this week - perfect for gardening, softball games and eating dinner on the patio!  Bring it on, spring!  We love it!

We've been doing a lot of homemade gifts around here and today I'm sharing two gifts my daughter made and one that I made.  Without further ado, here we go!
PART 10: PROJECT A: FLEECE BLANKET
This one was made by my Missy.  She actually made two - this is the one that she made for my mother-in-law.  My mother-in-law LOVES purple and bright pink - she's a very girly-girl - and we were going to put "Grammie" on it in silver sparkly letters.  Then my daughter realized how difficult it is to work with the silver sparkly embroidery thread and decided that pink and purple with gray stitching would have to do.  My in-laws family room is not insulated and they live in Iowa, so winters are cold.  This is perfect for my mother-in-law to curl up under while watching TV, reading or crafting.

 

 

This blanket is similar in idea to a fleece tie blanket, two pieces of fleece in the desired size attached together with no filler.  In this case she just straight stitched a 1" hem all the way around using the sewing machine and gray thread.  In the photo the gray is really hard to see but you can see the stitching line.  She likes making blankets this way because (a) she gets to use the sewing machine, (b) it takes far less time than a tie blanket, and (c) they never come untied, since they are sewed together. 

 

Items Needed:
Fleece

Thread

Sewing Machine

Scissors

Any extra embellishments you would like to add 

 

Blanket Instructions: 

Cut two pieces of fleece to the desired size of the blanket (ours is 54" square).  Pin pieces together, wrong sides in (or right sides out!) and sew a straight stitch from edge to edge along each side, being sure to tack stitching at the edges. . This gives a tidy square corner, which added a bit of decoration.   Clip threads and enjoy!  We used a single needle straight stitch with a 1" hem but we have also done with a 3/4" hem, a zigzag stitch, and two needles with contrasting threads. Our daughter left the raw edges raw, but you can certainly trim them if you'd like.

 

Our Cost:  $22.50 for 3 yards of fleece (1 1/2 yards of each color).  I had all the other supplies - thread, needles, sewing machine - already.   Our daughter used her own money to buy the material for this so we spent no money out of pocket on this gift.

 

Your Cost:  The same if you buy fleece on sale as we did.  Fleece is more expensive full price so if you bought at full price, you would certainly pay more.

 

PART 11: PROJECT B: NECKLACE



 

 

Our daughter has been making jewelry and selling it occasionally for about a year now. She loves it and I love seeing how creative she can be!   We bought her some new supplies for her Christmas stocking in December and Grandma and Grandpa made sure that she had a few more supplies in her stocking too! I think she's well stocked for a while now!

She made this necklace for my Mom for Mother's Day.  It consists of one large bead from a multipack I bought at a school supply store, four smaller beads leftover from a broken bracelet, and two "crystals" that were in her Christmas stocking strung on yellow necklace cording that I purchased in a multipack at Michael's for her last fall.    It took her about 20 minutes to make this, with most of that choosing beads and laying out the design.

Items Needed:
String, Thread, Cording or Elastic Cord
Beads
Sharp Scissors (to trim your cord)

Our Cost:  $0 we already everything!
Your Cost: Varies depending on what you purchase.  You can make necklaces for free using beads from a broken necklace and elastic string from packages or another broken necklace or just thread. 


PART 12: PROJECT C: A HANDKERCHIEF "TREE"

 

 

This was an idea I found in a book from our local library many, many years ago.  The book used Christmas themed handkerchiefs and put it on a red corkboard.  I used an inexpensive corkboard that I painted my Mom's favorite color blue and my Grandmother's handkerchiefs for something my Mom could hang on the wall all year round.  After this photo was taken, I decided I didn't like the distressed wood frame (mainly because of the uneven tone), so I painted it white.

 

Items Needed:
Corkboard

Paint and a brush/sponge

Handkerchiefs

Straight pins or thumb tacks

 

Instructions: 

 

Purchase a corkboard in your desired size or use one you already have.  If you so desire, paint the corkboard in a desired color. I used leftover water-soluble wall paint for the blue and then used white acrylic craft paint to later paint the frame.

 

After the paint dries, arrange the handkerchiefs on the corkboard.  I folded mine like they would be if poking out of the breast pocket of a jacket and then overlapped them so the embroidered edges are showing.  (See the photo below). 

 

 

Once you have your desired arrangement, attach the handkerchiefs to the corkboard using the straight pins or thumb tacks.  The original idea called for brass thumb tacks, which looked like ornaments on the Christmas-themed three.  Here, they were to "loud' and I thought they detracted from the overall look, so I used plain silver-colored, rustproof steel straight pins.  I placed them strategically inside the folds of the handkerchiefs so you cannot see them on the final project.

 

My Grandmother had quite a collection of beautiful handkerchiefs - I know she made the three with the crocheted edges and the two with flowers on the top but we don't know if the other four were purchased by her, made by her or given as gifts.  My Mom is pretty sure the printed brown one I used as a "trunk" was a gift from my Aunt back in the 1960's.  I wanted something that would display her handkerchiefs without damaging them and something my Mom could change out if she wanted to display others, so this was it!

 

Our Cost: $6 for the corkboard.  We had everything else.

 

Your Cost:  The same for the corkboard.  Vintage Handkerchiefs run anywhere from 25-cents to several dollars at second hand stores and antique shops.  You need at least 8 to make this, though you could use 7 and put a large vintage piece of jewelry at the top (such as a pin) rather than another handkerchief.  Straight pins and thumb tacks come in a multipack for a couple of dollars depending on how fancy you want them to be. Paint is also a couple of dollars a bottle or pint, depending on what you purchase.  If you have all the supplies you could make this for free.  Keeping on the low end you can make this without owning any of the supplies initially for around $20.



 

 

What did you make for Mother's Day this year?