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.

The Hope Chest Inspired Shower, Part 3: The Spring Kitchen Set

 

From A Light in the Attic  by Shel Silverstein

 

I think that everyone likes to see and to use things in the kitchen that make them smile... something to lift their spirits when performing the routine tasks of keeping an orderly and clean kitchen.  I wanted Kelly to have some little home-made love that would make her smile as she went about her new life.  This set started with pinterest pins of denim aprons.  They have always made me think of Kelly. She has always loved a good jeans outfit.  One of her favorites was a fancy denim skirt, blouse and jacket set we bought her when she was about six years old.  It was very fancy with ruffles and laces and she wore it all the time.  

While I was trying to come up with a jeans apron that reminded me of that little denim outfit, I was in Home Goods and picked up the pink towels you see in the picture above.  I was inspired by Kathleen of Miss Abigail's Hope Chest to try a little crochet edging.  I have several crochet books and know the basics but reading the patterns for specific edgings is a skill I am still acquiring.  Sooo...I made one up!  I had to use an awl to pierce the fabric over the thick hem to get my thinest crochet hook through at regular intervals and then did a a single crochet into each hole.  From there I did a row of double crochet and then chain stitched lacy loops that were attached with a slip stitch at regular intervals again.  I think it came out pretty but I really would like to learn to do some of the edgings in my books! I appliqued the butterfly from some scraps of fabric that coordinated and then added a band of the same fabric and some ribbon to the other towel.

 

The apron was made without a pattern.  I just used the backside of a pair of old jeans and bound the side edges in a blue and white lace.  The bottom has a ruffle of pink lace and two fabrics. 

Several of my pinterest denim pins were of totes/bags made of recycled jeans and they got me thinking of a reusable 'gift wrap' for this set for the Hope Chest Shower.  I took another pair of old jeans and just cut off the legs and sewed up the seam.  I added some little charms, tiny  bits of hand embroidery, more of the blue and white lace and some handles.  Done!

Kathleen, of Miss Abigail's Hope Chest has posted lovely crocheted dish cloths several times on her blog.  She even has tutorials for them and when I get a little help with reading the directions, I will be making some of those beautiful sets.  In the meantime, I was inspired by her to make a set of very simple pink dish cloths using single crochet and cotton yarn.  The border edging was just made up of chain stiches and slip stitches.

The cloths are straight and not wobbly, I promise.  I just had them tied up with the ribbon and they became creased.
 

Thank God for dirty dishes;

They have a story to tell.

While others may go hungry

We're eating very well.

 

With Home, Health, and Happiness,

I shouldn't want to fuss;

By the stack of evidence,

God's been very good to us.

Author Unknown