DIY Spa-Themed Gift Basket {Maternity Leave Guest Post}

Con­grat­u­la­tions Sara on your new bun­dle of joy! I hope you are find­ing a few min­utes to your­self each day, although I real­ize that can be chal­leng­ing with young boys plus a new­born. With that in mind, I thought I’d show all the Mom Endeav­ors read­ers how to cre­ate a unique and inex­pen­sive lined gift bas­ket using a painted thrift store bucket (tuto­r­ial here) and a pair of Good­will pants (tuto­r­ial below). And hope­fully they’ll fill it with a few relax­ing spa themed good­ies for the a new Mom in their lives.

Before we begin, I think intro­duc­tions are in order:

Hi, every­one, my name is Brit­tany (aka Pretty Handy Girl).

Yup that’s me, and that’s my drill which might as well be a pros­thetic arm because I always have it with me. I write a blog filled with DIY tuto­ri­als for build­ing things (like my son’s closet turned into a read­ing nook,)

or sewing things (like a piped bench cush­ion using a shower cur­tain,)

or fix­ing things (like replac­ing an old almond col­ored out­let,)

or craft­ing things like a book page medal­lion wreath.

Any­thing I improve, fix, design or cre­ate I’ll show you how I did it. I believe that you are all handy peo­ple, but some­times need a lit­tle step-by-step tuto­r­ial to give you the con­fi­dence to com­plete your own DIY project.

Won’t you join me in learn­ing how to put together a quick gift lined gift bas­ket using Good­will pants?

So, I started this post and wrote “How to Make a Pants Liner” in the title field until I real­ized that pants liner is only one let­ter away from panty liner. {snicker, gig­gle} Not good.

The liner started out in a pre­vi­ous life as a pair of pants:

Start by turn­ing the pants inside out.

Fold over the cut edge twice and sew it.

Set the pant leg into the bucket again and roll the fin­ished edge over the bucket until you are happy with how much cuff shows. Then use a pin to mark where the bot­tom of the bucket is.

Remove your pants liner {snicker, snicker, gig­gle. I almost said panty liner again.} And use some more pins to mark a straight line across the leg.

Take another breath and cut just below the pins on the leg. Remem­ber to allow at least 1/2″ seam allowance.

…and smooth out the bot­tom of the liner into your bucket.

That’s it. You are done. Now fill up your bucket with a few spa themed gifts for Sara (err, I mean your gift recipient.)

The pos­si­bil­i­ties for this project are end­less. How cute would a pair of old jeans look as a liner? Or some funky striped pants. So get thee to Good­will ASAP and scour those pant racks. Size large or big­ger works the best.

Thanks again for let­ting me share this tuto­r­ial with your read­ers Sara. I hope they’ll pay me a visit over at PrettyHandyGirl.com.

Now, get some rest gal!