Baby Bouquets

I seem to be at the stage in my life now where a lot of my friends are having babies. For the first baby shower I was invited to, I had no idea what to give the mum-to-be. I think I ended up buying a jumpsuit or something similarly uninspired. When my second baby shower invitation arrived, I knew I could do better. I turned to the internet and found this Martha Stewart video on how to make a baby bouquet. Now my favourite part of a baby shower is creating the gift!

Kim's baby bouquet

I recently made this bouquet (above) for my friend Kim. It contained:

  • 3 hats
  • 1 bib
  • 4 pairs of socks
  • 2 face washers
  • 3 singlets
  • 2 jumpsuits
  • 1 baby blanket
  • baby wipes
  • baby shampoo
  • baby powder

To assemble the bouquet, I used:

  • 1 box, approximately 22cm round
  • tissue paper
  • fake flowers (large and small), fake leaves
  • green florist tape (1-2 rolls)
  • green florist wire (1 packet)

A nice idea is to list the contents of the gift on the inside of the card so the parents-to-be don't need to take apart the bouquet straight away to know what's inside. At one baby shower I went to, we played a game of bingo where we had to guess the gifts that were given, so having a list was perfect for that too!

Lyndal's baby bouquet

Making the flowers

For the flowers, I use a range of items including jumpsuits/onesies (without sleeves is best), singlets, face washers, bibs, socks and hats. I aim for at least 15 items for a nice full bouquet (a pair of socks is one item). A mix of different-sized flowers works best. A pair of socks makes a pretty little bud, while a jumpsuit or face washer makes a larger flower. I also buy some fake flowers and leaves to fill in any gaps and make it look more like a bouquet.

To make the flowers:

  1. Fold and tightly roll up an item of clothing to form a flower. To learn how to fold the different-sized items, I watched this Martha Stewart video on YouTube.
  2. Insert a piece of florist wire into the base. I usually loop over the end of the wire so it slides in smoothly and doesn't catch on the clothing.
  3. Wrap the base of the flower tightly with green florist tape, starting near the top and working your way down to the wire stem.
  4. Continue the same process with each of the items of clothing until you have a collection of individual buds.
  5. Take the small fake flowers and about half of the leaves (putting some leaves aside to use when assembling the bouquet) and secure them to your flowers with florist tape. This can be done a bit randomly, and not every flower needs a leaf and a bud attached to it. I found this post on a craft forum that shows what your flowers should look like at this point.
  6. Group your flowers into bunches of 2 or 3 by twisting the wire stems together.

Ashlee's baby bouquet

Assembling the bouquet
  1. Line the empty gift box with a baby blanket. You could alternatively use a small basket, bucket or wooden box.
  2. Fill the bottom with some baby products wrapped in tissue paper (e.g. baby wipes, baby shampoo, baby powder). This helps weigh down the bouquet so it's not too top heavy, it fills the empty space to make the flowers sit up nice and tall, and is a nice little surprise when the bouquet is taken apart.
  3. Arrange the bunches of flowers in the box, bending over the stems where needed to form a nice shape.
  4. Insert the large fake flowers and remaining leaves throughout the bouquet to fill in any gaps.
  5. Add a ribbon or bow around the box to decorate, if desired.
  6. You're done! Don't forget to write a list of the bouquet's contents on the card for the receiver of the gift.