Help! Quick! What can I make for a Bridal Shower gift? (Done!)

[Juise]

Ok, this is pretty dense, I honestly didn't think at all. Slightly in my defense, I've never been to a bridal shower, but.. this seems obvious anyway. It is a "shower" after all. Ehem... I didn't realize I was supposed to be bringing a gift. It just suddenly dawned on me, and the shower is tomorrow! I don't have a vehicle and don't live anywhere near anywhere to shop, so I can't buy anything before then. I can't knit / crochet, but I can sew easy to medium - hard things, especially with a pattern, and I consider myself pretty crafty otherwise. I have lots of raw materials to work with, I just need ideas! What does one bring to a bridal shower! Consider me completely clueless I didn't have a bridal shower, I have no idea what is expected of me. This is for my step-sister-in-law and she will welcome a thoughtful hand made gift, so that isn't a problem, but all I am feeling right now is sudden panic, not thoughtful, I can't think of anything!

Any ideas are very appreciated

[Chamomile Girl]

Well I have been to two types of bridal showers; One where the gifts were racy (like negligees and stuff), and the second where gifts were homey (like kitchen stuff or china cups). If you are pretty sure it is the second you could whip up a cool retro apron. If you think it is the first you could still whip up an apron but also make matching panties .

[woodchick]

I was going to suggest an apron as well!  Here's a link to 50 Free Apron Patterns.

Maybe a set of cloth napkins?

or potholders? maybe to match the apron?

[Juise]

Ha! That's hilarious! I just went through my fabrics, though, and I don't think I have anything that will really work I mostly have solids and child-oriented fabrics, gah. If only I could get to a fabric store.

I think I'm developing an idea, though. I have a large jug of olive oil, and I have two new little oil / vinegar pitchers with corks. I also have bunches of dried herbs from last years garden hanging in the closet. I could either do two differently herbed oils, or I probably have enough of at least one type of vinegar to fill up the other. I've never done that before, so I will need to look up which are good to use and I hope it's okay to use dried instead of fresh, they are still on their stems, though.

We have all of our herbs and veggies and so forth started for this year, too, so I was also thinking about doing a pot with a basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, but I just talked to her mom and she said maybe no because she'll probably kill them, lol. Now I wish I hadn't asked because I want to give them to her anyway and I am trying to decide, haha. Herbs are really hardy and I do think she'd be able to keep them alive, and if not, then oh well? We started them from seed so it's not like they were costly or anything And we certainly have more than enough.

I wish I had little jars and I would give them a set of freshly ground dried herbs from our garden, too. I feel like that would be a fun gift, she has just started to really get into cooking and is still learning a lot. Maybe I can whip up some tea towels to put with them or something, I will have to go check that cloth stash again.

[Juise]

x-posted with you woodchick, those are good ideas, too. I am going to see if I have enough of a fabric to do matching tea towels, pot holders, and maybe the napkins, too. I just don't have enough of anything cool enough to make a neat apron, but I could do any of those in a solid and embellish it in some way. I screen print, if only I had thought about it all yesterday, I could have a screen made up to personalize all of the above! Ah well, there are always freezer paper stencils! Have to maker a new one for each item, but at least they don't have to dry for 24 hours before you can used the stencil

[Juise]

I got my gifts done and they were very well received, yay! Just wanted to share what I ended up doing.

I looked into the herbed oils, and as it turns out, not only are dried herbs fine, they need to be dry if you're not using a goat load of preservatives. Botulism doesn't grow in oil, but it does grow in even very small amounts of water, so you need to make sure anything you use is completely dried or preserved. So I didn't add the garlic I was thinking of using and just put the dried herbs in the glass pitchers and topped them off with olive oil. To "finish" them, I wrote their descriptions on some card stock that I had used to demonstrate splattering water colours to my daughter with, (why do I do things like that to myself?) cut the tags out with pinking shears, punched a hole in them, and tied them on with thin gold elastic stuff. I think they turned out pretty cute.

I also planted some basil, thyme, and parsley sprouts (they were the largest of my sprouts ) in a pot with labels and tied a bow around it. Then I sewed some simple tea towels which took me way too long because by that time I wasn't thinking straight, and made mushroom appliques for them. I wrapped those up similar to the oils. Tada!

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with myself given the amount of time I had, not to mention the fact that I was working by myself with a 9 month old and a 3 year old.

Tea Towels

Herb Pot

Herb Infused Oils

Herb Infused Oils and Tea Towels

[woodchick]

Those look great!  I would love to get that as a gift!

[Juise]

Thank you! I am hoping to do pot holders to match the towels for the wedding gift, and definitely the apron with panties! My husband thought that was an awesome idea, too And I have until July 1st to get that done, which is a much more reasonable span of time for me to be able to complete a task like that than one night, lol. I have very, very little time to work on things other than taking care of children or attempting to keep a reasonable house, and I'm still very much so learning how to sew, so everything takes me longer. Especially the first time I do it. For instance, I am sure I could make tea towels in at least a quarter of the time I spent on these. What I spent the most time on was trying to trim the raw edge of the fabric very nice and straight and all the way back to the seam because I didn't think it through enough before hand and I should have double folded the hems to get the raw edge inside, I just folded the edges and sewed. I should really just look up how to do things before I try them, even if they seem simple. Stupid mistakes like that sure can suck up a lot of time.

[tjjazzy]

i'm going to have to remember that apron with panties LOL...even if it's a father's day gift ;) (for my husband!! to clarify...)

[cocoanib]

Wow, I love this idea! I also love how you put together a gift from what you had on hand.

S9o thoughtful and awesome!

[OkiMom]

That's awesome! I love that you were able to use things you had on hand to make the gift.