Last One: Hope Chest Inspired Shower, Part #9

Summer Kitchen Set For Kelly

Apron modeled by my beautiful daughter Victoria-Rose.

Last summer I hosted a Tea Party Shower for my wonderful niece, Kelly.  I made many things for a special themed gift:  a very large laundry basket filled with things that would be normally found in a Hope Chest.  You can see the Tea Party itself HERE and a post with links to all the other gifts I made HERE, if you are interested in seeing the other goodies.  This is the last of the catch-up posts on the shower gifts.

This apron was the beginning piece for this set and served as the summer color scheme for the other kitchen things.  It was made using at least three different patterns and changed about to suit my 'vision'.

All the fabrics were from Shelley Detton's "The Garden Club" collection.  These little birds are just so cute!

I love the bow in the back  of the apron and those deep rick rack trimmed pockets!

Next up is a tea cozy that I made using the bird house panel from the fabric line.  I added trims and hand embroidery to both sides of the cozy. 

Crocheted dish cloths in complimentary colors.  Washing dishes wouldn't be so bad with these, right?  

Three kitchen towels were added to the set.  Two were easy.  I embellished two towels purchased from Home Goods.  One was trimmed with lace and ribbon and the other with fabric and rick rack. 

 The most time consuming item of this entire set was the dish towel on the left.  It was hand embroidered from a booklet of transfers purchased at JoAnn's.  I used colors of  DMC  floss that coordinated with the Shelly Detton fabric line, and trimmed it with some pink loop trim from the stash and a border of the material.  I put the border on both sides of the towel.  I did purchase this cotton towel and the quality of the material was fine but it was off grain.  I ended up tearing off all the seamed edges and re-hemming it.

A close up of the embroidery.

Because I did not line the towel and it would be seen from both sides I tried very hard to make the embroidery look pleasing from the backside as well as the front.

Last, but not least, I made Kelly a set of bowl bonnets identical to a set I made a friend earlier in the year.  They are reversible and come in handy when taking covered dishes to pot-lucks, etc.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the things I made for sweet Kelly and that it has inspired you to create some things for yourself or for someone you love.  Perhaps you could begin with a simple project to make with your daughter, granddaughter, or a special young friend that would be used in her future.  You would be creating something useful as well as making memories that would last a lifetime.

May your day be filled with the blessings that come from the little things in life.  Enjoy!

Edited to share at the Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party:  HERE and to  Super Mom-No Cape's  Stitchery Link Party HERE.  Check out all the amazing posts in their parties.