This post contains affiliate links.
Does it feel like you don’t ever have any “Me” time?
Sometimes it can get a bit crazy feeling like I’m going in a million different directions – and even when I’m alone I feel like there is so much to get done.
One of my favorite ways to relax is with a nice, long, super hot bath.
There’s nothing quite as relaxing as filling a bath with something yummy smelling, grabbing a book, and having some time to just . . . . rest.
(Apparently I also have a number of books that like to take baths also, because they seem to just jump right in the water. I have a whole wrinkly-dropped-in-the-bath-then-dried-out section on my bookshelf. )
I hope you agree because I have just the thing for you –
a tutorial for a Spa Scrubbie and a soothing Tropical Bath Tea Soak!
See? We match the Spa Headband! I love that. :)
Let’s start with the bath scrubbie! You’ll need:
Small piece of Cotton (enough for back of scrubbie and two pieces for strap)
Click here for the PDF Pattern
Piece of towel – cut out 1 piece double the width of the scrubbie back piece
Piece of lace – cut length of strap.
Start with the strap. Sew the piece of lace to one piece of the strap, down the center.
Place the two strap pieces, right sides together, and sew the long top and bottom sides. Leave the two short sides open.
Turn right side out and press.
Pin the strap to the right side of the oval cotton piece, in the center. Sew the two short sides to the oval piece with a small 1/8 seam allowance.
Now we’re going to work on ruffling our towel. This can be a little tiny bit tricky.
Normally to gather material, you set your sewing machine to the longest stitch length and sew a line of stitching. You can either hold the thread spool as you go and it will ruffle itself, or you can gather it by pulling lightly on one end of the thread.
Neither of these methods worked with the towel. It was too thick.
So I ended up bunching up the towel as I sewed, kind of forcing a gather, and that seemed to work best. I just pushed the fabric up into a gather and sewed a regular sized stitch over it. Not very technical or fancy but it worked. :)
I ended up sewing rows of gathering about 3/4″ apart, all down the length of the towel piece.
Pin the right side of your cotton piece to the right side of the ruffles. Don’t worry about the corners, we’ll trim those off soon.
Sew around your oval with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leave a space open at the bottom to turn it right side out.
Trim all the excess towel off.
Turn your scrubbie right side out. I did a small stitch around the edge (but not over the strap) to help hold it together and to sew the opening closed.
This got a little thick for my machine in places. If you want to skip this step, you can just sew the opening closed by hand.
Cute huh? Your hand just slides right in!
Now let’s make the Tropical Bath Tea Soak – so we have something yummy smelling and soothing for the water.
I originally found this recipe here, and just tweaked it a bit for the scent I like. :)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup dry milk
1/2 cup oatmeal
2 teaspoons green tea with mango leaves
2 teaspoons peach tea leaves
(If you don’t have loose tea, I found 3 tea bags is about 2 teaspoons. Or close enough anyway. :)
Directions:
Begin by grinding up your oatmeal. A coffee grinder works great for this.
Add your oatmeal and other ingredients to a food processor and whiz them up all together.
Add 2 Tablespoons to warm bath water!
That’s it! So easy.
If you tea leaves are big and flaky, your can grind them up in your coffee grinder too, or when you take a bath you can add the 2 Tablespoons to an Organza Drawstring Bag, like this one:
Just add the bag to your bathwater. You could reuse it too – just rinse the tea out after each bath.
I poured the Bath Tea into a bottle I had, and of course dressed it up to match our set. :)
I glued a strip of the cotton around the jar, then glued a strip of lace over that.
I tied a jute string around the neck to hold a tablespoon too.
I think it makes a fun little set!
These would make great gifts too! These would be perfect as shower or birthday gifts!
Keep in mind all your Moms too – it’s never too early to start crafting for Mother’s Day!
You would need to make yourself a set first though – just to try everything out. It’s the polite thing to do. ;)
What a great tutorial, I actually might have to try this, I don’t know the first thing about sewing, but I think I want to give this one a try!!! Thank you so much for the tut!
This is SO stinkin’ cute! What a great gift to give!!!! You rock Bev!
The scrubby and matching bottle are just adorable and oh so girly. I bet the bath soak smells delicious. This would make such a beautiful gift, but not before I made some for myself! Thanks Bev for yet another great project!
Great tutorial! I love baths too. I wish I had a big old soaking tub with jets, but I have just a small 1950’s ceramic tub that came with my 1950’s home. It gets the job done in a pinch though!
this looks really great! so relaxing!
nelly dot barney at yahoo dot com
This would definitely make a great Mother’s Day gift! The soak sounds devine, and, of course, the scrub is just too cute. I’m going to put this on my to do list after the baby comes (*ahem* My belly is too big for my tub!) lol!
Thanks for all these great spa recipes and patterns! I wanted to get a super head start on Xmas this year and I think some of these would be great to make ahead of time . I’ll try them out on myself first, of course!
This fall, I’m having a party for my friends, and it is all about tea. The origins, different kinds, the best way to brew, and different uses foe it. You are giving me lots of ideas this week! Thanks!
I featured you guys today! :) Love the new design!
Amanda
http://www.todaystoptwenty.blogspot.com
What a darling idea! I love to make my own soft washcloths, but you’ve taken it to a much cuter level!
Love this! Thank you for the tutorial.
This is soo cute! I will definitely have to give this a try… for myself and as a gift to others. Thanks for the great tutorial.
Thanks for the tutorials! My favorite part of the scrubbie is that little bit of lace! So cute! I would love for you to link this to my Sew Crafty Party!
http://wildflowersandwhimsy.blogspot.com/2011/01/sew-crafty-saturday-agape-love-boutique.html
I featured you!! Can’t wait to make some of this bath soap!
http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/2011/02/favorite-things-friday-no-10.html
So, I cannot believe it took me this long to get here. AWESOME idea. I am tickled pink (be on the lookout this weekend). I could use some me time and a soak!
wow thanks for sharing the tutorial for making the bath scrubby. i’ve been looking for something to use instead of the plastic puffs as i would like to reduce how much plastic i use. i’ll be marking this to make later.
This is super neat..
I just made some of the bath soak but substituted the fruity tea for sleepy time tea… as I am 32 weeks pregnant and having a super tough time sleeping… esp without my sleepy time tea I can’t drink… BUT they never said anything about soaking in it (:
Hello !
This is just the darn cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m just wondering exactly how much this makes though. I want to make it for 7 of my coworkers and put them in smaller jars than the ones shown so I’m curious if I need to double or triple the recipe. Thanks!
Tried this tonight, and it was super easy to come together, but I didn’t like how it left all the little floating bits of tea stuck to me and my tub when I drained the water. I bet this would be fantastic in the organza bags, though! =)
WOW!
first time visitor! I am definatly going to make this! I cant WAIT to see other ideas! thanks
Simple yet elegant. This is my first time visiting your site and I must say that I love your creativity. You make it look easy. I have 5 women in my family that are going to love this for Christmas. The perfect gift for that hard to buy for woman. Who doesn’t love a nice hot bath. Thank you
Wow, this is an incredibly clever and creative idea! I’d love to try it, but I don’t have a sewing machine (at least, it’s not working). Could I do this with regular stitching? Honestly, I’ve barely stitched in my life, I guess I’ll have to practice a lot.
I can’t emphasize how wonderful this idea is :)
I LOVE this! I’m bookmarking it so that I can make it as gifts for the female members of my family this Christmas. Super cute idea!
Love this idea! I especially love the tea soak for in the bath – it’s really nice to know what I’m putting into the bath (it’s hard when family members have a lot of allergies!)
Love this! How long would the bath soak stay good? Does the smell fade at all or go bad?
I still have some of this in the jar and it still smells great! I don’t know what the shelf life is for sure – but it’s been almost two years and we’re still good. ;)
Try heavy waxes dental floss to ruffle the towel,
Could I use flour instead of corn starch?
Alex,
I don’t really know – I haven’t tried to play around with the recipe. Sorry! You might give it a try, but I’m not sure how the flour will hold up in the bath.
If you give it a try, let us know! :)
Bev
Thanks for sharing -can’t wait to try this out to give as gifts
Do you remember where you found the glass bottle?
Love the idea as some DIY gift give aways for my wedding but was wonder .. The tea is what determines the sent? So I could make any sent I wanted?
Where did you get the jars?
Hi! This is so cool! Two questions though:
Is the tea what determines the scent?
Could you use a blender instead of a food processor?
Hi Maddie!
Yes, it’s the tea that determines the scent – so you could change it up really easily. And I’m not sure about the blender – I would think that it would work. You just want to get the oatmeal as fine as you can so I’d try it with that first. Hope that helps! :)
Bev
Maddie,
I made these last night for some coworkers. I used a blender and it was fine. I started with the oats first, so I could grind them. I could not find green tea with mango, so I used the peach and I found a tropical fruit blend by Celestial seasonings to substitute for the mango. I wished I had ground the tea leaves though. I did not use organza when I tested and it left a mess in the tub. I think if you include an organza bag, they will do fine. I also added a round circle of burlap to the lids. I am pleased with the way they turned out.
Hello! I’m not sure if this has been asked but is dry milk the same thing as powdered milk? Also, this may be a stupid question but if someone is allergic to milk do you happen to have another suggestion? Thank you!
Looks and smells amazing I added tazo passion tea and a little extra tea leaves to give it a stronger scent. Overall very satisfied.
This is a really cute idea! I’m going to have to try this with a few of my essential oils and dried flowers.
You can actually buy bath teabags. You fill them with your favorite bath recipes and toss them in your bath water. They come in different sizes as well.