Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Mother's Day Gift With Things You Already Have


Hey Mom - **Spoiler Alert** Do not read this. Your gift is in the mail :)

I had to make Mother's Day and Teacher's Appreciation gifts this weekend. I looked all over the Internet for your good ideas. I decided on rice heat therapy wrap and cooling eye pillow sets. If you are a sewer, you probably have everything you need to make these. I looked at patterns HERE at Sew, Mama, Sew and HERE at Amy Butler Designs but really did my own thing. My tutorial isn't very thorough (but the links above are - or if you have questions I would more than happy to answer them).



To make the rice insert all you do is sew a sleeve (sew three sides of your rectangle - however big you want it), flip it right side out, fill it 3/4 full with rice, and sew it closed. I used a cotton scrap material I had. So the rice evened out a bit, for the longer pillow I sewed a line down the center after flipping to the right side but before filling both sides 3/4 full of rice. You can mix an essential oil such as lavender with the rice for a nice, relaxing scent. You could even add some dried lavender flowers with the rice.



To make the covers, again you make a sleeve about an inch and a half longer than your rice insert (I embellished mine a little by sewing a few different colored fabrics to the front), flip it right side out, fold it over the added inch and a half and sew it on the sides (shown above). Open it up to insert the rice insert. The heating wrap and the cooling eye pillow are made the same, just different sizes.



As a SUPER NICE BONUS, Sew, Mama, Sew had a pdf file for nice gift instruction tags. They look very put together.

Honestly, if you are able to sew straight lines, you could make a set of these in a half hour. If you were to have to buy the fabric ($2.00), rice ($2.00) and thread ($1.00) you still can make a nice looking gift for $5.00. This frugal, yet practical gift works for me!



Join Tonya on her Penny Pinching Parade to see more frugal tips! Or We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday ideas (the frugal addition!).

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing! I have a child with special needs so he has lots of teachers and others that help him. I need an inexpensive gift to give at the end of the year. This will be great!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There turned out great! I love the fabrics you used. What a special gift for mom! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love my rice "sock" ... so soothing. Yours look beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow those are nice I wish I could sew better :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great tip!! Those are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great idea. And I've loved your thoughts on the other posts I've quickly looked at. Have a wonderful day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE LOVE LOVE those.

    We made hand stitched ones with the homeschooling group.....but the Snoopy fabric we had does not even come close to the gorgeous ones you used. BRAVO!

    So do you need my addy again to make sure I get mine by the weekend? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aren't these lovely! My mom made ME one of these a few years ago for Christmas. It feels so good, warm and snuggled up against your neck. Hope your mom loves it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a great idea. I love this. Thanks for stopping by today and playing along at my Round Robin. Have a great Friday and weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those are so much cuter than the my rice packs and I love the sleeve idea. It would be nice to be able to wash them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is a wonderful gift. I love the colors. Thanks for sharing. Laura @ the mansion

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow what a good idea and I love the fabric combinations!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love these, and really want to make some!

    How long do you think it takes people who CAN'T sew a straight line?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Those are beautiful! I would love to try and make those.
    TFS

    Happy Mothers Day

    ReplyDelete
  15. I left you something on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Love those! What great gift ideas!!

    ReplyDelete