END OF YEAR TEACHER GIFTS ...

This year we only had 4 teacher gifts to come up with (Middle schooler don't give gifts to their teachers, so Girl Child informed me). Because of circumstances being what they are, my rule this year was to spend a maximum of $5 per gift and use what I had in my stash to make the rest. It turned out to be quite a fun challenge. I made 2 of each gift, and then let Boy Child decide which gift he wanted to give to which teacher.

I knitted wash cloths using 100% cotton yarn from my stash. I used these colors specifically because I had seen (and smelled) these delicious lavender and tea tree oil soap bars at World Market, and because I had knitted the lavender sprigs a while back. I had made them as decorations for a function, and I knew I could use them as part of the wrapping.

I wrapped the washcloths and soap up in cellophane, added the lavender sprig, a label and some tulle (also reused from the same decorations), and voila, we had ourselves 2 pretty gifts. The teachers whom he gave them too, loved the gifts.

I bought these dishtowels as a pack at Wally World. I decided to give them a facelift, so I added a border to each. The strawberry towel, I crocheted a scalloped edge onto. I had never done this before, but thanks to a great tutorial I found online, I managed it, and I really like how it turned out. The checked one, I sewed some pleated binding onto, that I had left over from a previous project.

The jam holders I also found at Wally World (they hold 2 half pint jars perfectly). They're pretty useful things to have, I've decided (maybe I need to stock up on a few for Christmas before canning season is over, and they're all gone)... I made little jar lid covers from some fabric scraps, and I popped a jar each of my homemade strawberry and kiwi jam into the holders. I wrapped all of this together with cellophane and ribbon and finished the gift off by making a fabric strawberry to hang on each.
So now we head into the long, hot, lazy days of summer ...