Fat Quarter Gifts

Fat Quarter Gifts

I have been feverishly sewing to get ready for the holiday craft fair at my son’s school. I am making some fun spa themed gifts that will make great gifts for moms and grandmas this Christmas and I thought I would share a quick fat quarter gifts tutorial because these are ridiculously easy! All you really need is two fat quarters and a bag of rice (but I am also adding in some dried lavender that is easy to find and order online. Find it here.)

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Here are a few really fun fat quarter bundles to use for this project:

Robert Kaufman Message in a Bottle

Moda Chic Neutrals

Hawaii Tonga Batiks

You will want to open up the fat quarters and give them a good press. Then fold them in half and place one on top of the other. Make sure that the folded edges are lined up with each other. This way you will only have to make a cut once rather than several times.

There are three different projects and the first one is a U shaped hot/cold rice pack. I made the template shown below out of poster board and then traced it onto the fabric and cut it out.

Once you have cut the U shape out you will have these three pieces of fabric.

From the inside of the U you will cut out an eye mask. I traced one that I had already made, but my original was drawn by hand. The shape is really not too difficult to eyeball. Make sure that you have the two pieces of fabric lined up together right sides facing so you only have to make one cut.

Next you have the long strip which we will cut into four small squares. These are going to be made into either hand warmers or if you have lavender they can be made into scent pouches. For these cuts I just used the lines that were created from the original folds in the fat quarter.

So here are the three different projects that you have cut.

All the pieces will be finished the same way. Place right sides together and then sew around the edges leaving an opening to turn the piece out.

Before you turn the pieces out trim the corners being careful not to trim the stitching. This will make a nice corner once the piece is turned right side out.

Now to fill the pieces I like to use a tablespoon, a measuring cup, and a funnel as well as the rice and lavender.

The small pouches I filled with 2 Tbs of rice and a pinch of lavender. I like to mix the rice and lavender in the measuring cup before I put it into the pouch to make sure that the lavender is distributed evenly.

Use the funnel to spoon the rice mixture into the pouch and then push the rice and lavender down as far from the opening as possible and place a pin to hold the filling in place. You can pin again to hold the open edge together. This first pin will keep the rice from getting in the way of your needle and causing issues when you topstitch the edge down.

To expedite the process fill all the pieces first and then sew them all at once. Next fill the eye mask using the same method. You will obviously need to use more rice and a touch more lavender. I do not like to overfill the mask because it is hard to sew and I find it to be too heavy with too much rice in it. Again push the rice down and pin it down to aid in the sewing.

Lastly we will fill the over the shoulder pack. Again I caution against using too much rice because it can quickly become heavy and burdensome. Fill it up just enough to have a good layer of rice throughout the whole piece. Push the rice down and pin.

Now you will want to topstitch the opening closed on all of the pieces.

You should end up with 8 hand warmers/scent satchels, 1 eye mask, and 1 over the shoulder hot/cold pack. I am going to pair the eye mask with a homemade sugar scrub like this rose sugar scrub or this tangerine sugar scrub for a beautiful “spa day” present. These would make great teacher gifts as well!

Here are the directions I am going to add to my gift packs: This hot/cold pack can be placed in the freezer overnight and used for fevers or you can mist it with water and microwave in 15 second increments until it is warm and put it on sore muscles. Be careful not to overheat as this could cause burns. Enjoy!