Yesterday sort of ran away from me. I had a heap of errands to run and braved the grocery store in pre-turkey-day-plus-pre-first-big-snow-of-the-season chaos. This meant there was no milk, toilet paper, or cream cheese. At the register with my giant turkey, the cashier balked at the price and made sure it was right. Yes, I told her. And I'll be back the day after turkey day bright and early to see if there are any hippie turkeys left that might be on sale. That's about the only "black Friday" sale I have interest in. Something tells the grocery store will be quiet that day.
While I ran endless errands, the kids listened to Percy Jackson on audio. The library trip in the beginning proved to be a lifesaver for us all. We made it home with enough time to put farm veggies and groceries away. Make a quick salad and huevos rancheros for dinner. And head back out the door for parent teacher conferences at the high school. Phew. And if that was not enough excitement, the FIRE ALARM went off at 2:15 a.m!! Causing great chaos as Joe (in his undies) and I bolted from our room where Sam met us wide-eyed from the top of the basement stairs and the three of us checked the other kids and the house. At least three times over. Finding nothing. Thank God. Joe & I were both still a little rattled this morning and decided we needed to do a fire drill and let the kids practice sliding from the roof.
But gosh, I guess I got completely distracted. I'm really here to share another simple giftable project with you.
Silk & lavender eye pillows!





There is really nothing like rewarding yourself with a few quiet minutes of relaxation. (especially if you've an esepcially chotic day!)
This luxurious eye pillow can be filled with buckwheat groats, wheat berries, or rice for gentle pressure on the eyes. Lavender adds relaxing aromatherapy benefits. This thick charmeuse silk is durable and fairly easy to sew. It can be purchased at Dharma Trading. The 6×24 inch silk scarf is big enough for one eye pillow, but I suggest buying the 15×60 scarf and making up a few eye pillows as gifts (the larger silk will make 5 eye pillows!). You can purchase it by the yard too. Also at Dharma, you can purchase a small 2 ounce jar of Dharma Acid Dye to dye your silk scarf. They have many tutorials on how to do this. It’s fun, easy, and makes a beautiful one of a kind piece of fabric for your project. (this dye works on wool too!) Be sure to rinse your dyed silk well, dry and gently iron on a low setting before proceeding with the project.
Materials:
silk fabric (see details above)
a fresh sharp needle on your sewing machine
thread for sewing
1 cup dried lavender
2 cups un-toasted buckwheat groats, wheat-berries, rice (or other small heavy grain)
Instructions::
Cut your silk fabric into two 5.5 x 12 inch rectangles. Right sides together (this is the shiny slippery side), pin and stitch the silk pieces together starting about a half inch in from the top corner. Stitch all the way around and then turn the silk & stitch back where you began, creating a double seam all the way around the silk. See the photo for illustration. Backstitch to prevent unraveling & remove from the machine.
Clip the corners as shown, being careful not to get too close to your seam. Turn the silk pillow right side out, you can use a knitting needle or similar blunt tipped item to help turn the corners inside out. Fill with 1 cup of dried lavender and 2 cups of your chosen grain. You can use more or less grain to create the fullness you are after.
Hand or machine stitch the opening closed. If you use buckwheat groats, find un-toasted ones. I find toasted ones to have a strong scent that interferes with the lavender. Gently kneading the pillow will activate the lovely lavender scent. You can also add a few drops of essential oil to the grains instead of the dried lavender if you'd like a different scent. Just adjust the grains to make up for leaving the lavender out.
You're all done. You can sew a few of these up easily in an afternoon. Be sure to keep one for yourself!
Lay back, place your eye pillow over your eyes & relax…..
xo~
s
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