My sister brought organic dried roses for me from Boulder, Colorado- and I haven't felt much like drinking rosehip tea lately. On the other hand, having a baby with sensitive skin makes dryer sheets and fabric softener a no-go at the castle. So I decided to make rose petal dryer bags to make the laundry come up roses. Simple and oh so sweet.
SUPPLIES
dried roses and petals
wooden spoons (or a hammer)
muslin fabric scraps
reddish thread
Rosebuds tumbled onto the table top. The dried roses were still intact, so I took out a few wooden spoons and asked the kids to "gently crush" the roses into smaller pieces but not into a powder. I've found that the more descriptive my instructions, the more satisfaction the kids seem to get out of the task.
There's something marvelous about the integrity of a dried rosebud- the way you can see it's individual figure and shape in the drying. Max did not want to "crush" them, so he studied them as the girls took to the tough task of crushing and whopping.
As the kids crushed the rosebuds, I found a few scraps of muslin fabric and cut them to the size of 3" by 3" squares. Then I put them together wrong sides facing each other and basted them using my sewing machine. I left a spoon-size opening for flipping and stuffing. I was also very careful to backstitch and secure my ends.
Then I flipped the little 3"x 3" baggies right sides out by pulling them through the opening. The kids used a kitchen spoon to fill the baggies halfway with rose petal crushings.
Finally I rolled in the opening and used an ornamental stitch to close and line the entire dryer bag- because there's a difference between laundry that smells like roses and laundry covered in tiny pieces of roses.
The almost- final result.... The I-still-need-to-cut-loose-threads-and-clean result... Each one can be thrown in the dryer about ten times for a strong rose scent. After that, they make great baby doll and dollhouse pillows. If you'd like a few of your own readymade, visit my etsy page and make a custom order request. I'd love to fill your day with roses.
