Bobbins of Basil: Bridesmaid Gift #1: Initialed Robes

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Bridesmaid Gift #1: Initialed Robes

My bridesmaids and bridal assistants were great. They threw me a wonderful shower and bachelorette party and traveled from all over the Eastern and Central time zones for both my shower/bachelorette weekend and my wedding weekend. I wanted to make sure I expressed my gratitude properly.

I gave each of them three gifts, all that could be used the day of the wedding and (hopefully) in the future: a robe with their first initial, a hanger with their first initial (view here), and a homemade jewelry set (view here). The moms also got the robe and jewelry. I'll post separately on the jewelry and hangers, but I'll share the robes here.

I started with simple terrycloth robes from Walmart. I want to clarify some of the negative reviews on Walmart's website, because I really liked these robes. They are SUMMER robes. They are LIGHT. They are not fluffy and warm, nor do they advertise that they are (most of the negative reviews complain about the fact that they are light). My negative remarks? They are a little stiff and could be improved in the softness category, but running them through the wash with a little fabric softener made them satisfactorily comfortable. Finally, like most things from Walmart, they run very big. I ordered based on the size chart bust size. I only ordered smalls and mediums. One of the 11 robes was missing the narrow inner tie that holds the robe closed (that one ended up being mine, but I didn't realize until I had already washed them all and thrown away the packaging). Seriously, for low-priced robes, I think they were wonderful!

I chose three colors, so not everyone had a robe in their wedding "signature color" to match their dresses and flowers, but I didn't think that mattered too much for the getting ready gear. I tried to choose colors that each of my bridesmaids would choose themselves so they would continue to use them. My mother-in-law came to the house already dressed, but I've seen her wear the robe twice (the morning after the wedding and when she came to visit), so hopefully she's not just doing it for my benefit and really likes it!

I found some shiny fabric in my stash that I'd had for a LONG time for the letters. I used Heat 'n Bond No-Sew Iron-On Adhesive to attach the letter before sewing around the edges with a tight zigzag stitch.

Of course, I drew out the letters myself, so they're more or less in my handwriting. I drew the letters on paper and then traced them onto the papery side of the adhesive (in reverse to make a mirror image). Then I ironed all the letters onto my fabric and cut them out and ironed them onto my pre-washed (and fabric softened) robes. I didn't worry about the grain of the fabric for this project. Finally, I stitched around the edges.

The letters are drawn on the paper side in reverse, and the adhesive side is ironed to my purple shiny fabric.

Next, I cut out the letters, so they're ready to iron on to the robes.

Here's what they looked like and how I folded them up to fit in their bags.

I packaged all the gifts in these "gift bags," which are actually reusable grocery bags. Real gift bags are unnecessarily expensive. These were cheaper, and who doesn't need more reusable grocery bags?