Married to the Empire

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Wedding Gifts Again

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'd mastered the mitered corner in sewing. Then I said I'd show you what I was doing with the fruits of my labor. It took me a week longer than I planned, but I'm finally done and able to let you see!

Because we have 4 weddings this summer, all in fairly short succession, I needed to give nice gifts, but not spend a lot of money. Being a one-income family means we can't throw money around on extravagant gifts, even if we'd like to. After checking each bride's registry, I bought fabric in their kitchen colors and made dish towels. I'll be showing towels from just one bride's gift.

Two of the finished towels laid out:



I folded 6 of them neatly, tied them with ribbon, and attached a very nice wooden spoon purchased on my trip to Sur La Table a few weeks ago:



I also included a favorite cookbook of mine, the More-with-Less Cookbook. It's a great, basic cookbook with good recipes that even a beginning cook can make. It's also a wealth of information about food and being responsible with resources:



I put it all in a box and wrapped it up, ready to be given, along with a homemade card:



Total cost for this gift was about $20.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I got the general pattern/directions for the dish towels from this book.

For more Works-for-Me Wednesday ideas, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

12 comments:

Megan said...

That's a great gift - I'll have to bookmark this to keep in mind for the next wedding gift I have to give! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I am so pumped about your idea!

We have a few wedding gifts to take care of and I am going to copy you.

By the way, that graphic pattern on the black towel is just so, so cool.

Love it.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why my previous comment linked back to someone else's blog...hmmm. Very strange.

Hopefully, this comment goes to the right place! :)

Teresa said...

That is lovely! I would be all to thrilled to receive a present just like that!

Wani said...

Hello! How cool is this!?! I love it! Another really cool wedding gift I saw a friend do was a "dinner date basket". She filled an inexpensive basket with some cheap red and white checkered napkins, a box of spaghetti, sauce, and got some wine glasses at the dollar store and etched (not as hard as it sounds - she got a kit at the craft store) the couple's monogram into them! It was really neat!

Lydia said...

Great gift idea! I also can't believe you can still get that cookbook- my mom had it on the mission field in Africa(many years ago)!

Tara said...

I love your idea!! It is very sweet.. and pretty. I love homemade touches!!! Thanks for posting.

Anonymous said...

lovely gift. I know the brides apreciate your time and effort put into the gift.

*carrie* said...

That was seriously less than $20?! I thought the cookbook alone cost that much. This is a beautiful, practical gift.

ashley said...

This is such a great gift idea! We have a wedding this weekend, but I don't think I'll be able to get my act together enough to make this (especially since I don't have a sewing machine :-)), but I'm going to use this as inspiration to make something similar! Any other ideas? :-)

Sue said...

What a GREAT gift! The towels are very hip looking. And the cookbook! I got a total rush of nostalgia when I saw that - I thought it was just a Mennonite thing (my mom's side of the family is Mennonite).
I may have to copy you for the next wedding or shower I go to...

Unknown said...

Hope you wont mind if I can borrow the fabulous idea of yours. Indeed this is one spectacular piece of creation to which I ever came across. When it matters I become desperately short of ideas and what can be better than to do something alike for some of the weddings that are slated in the coming days! Thanks for sharing your work.

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