Sock Roses & A Hospital Survival Basket Tutorial

Visit RocknQuilts for Tuesday Toot-torial!

We found out this week that one of our men from church has been diagnosed with colon cancer.  At a loss for what to do for the family, Gaby, my daughter-in-law suggested we put together a basket for Ron and his sweet wife, Kay.  After making a few calls and asking friends who wanted to contribute to the basket to bring specific things we had a basket full of good things for the hospital visit. 

Remembering previous hospital visits and family experiences with hospital stays we put together a list of things that would be good for a hospital survival basket

• Socks to keep our feet warm in a cold room
• Lip balm to put on lips that dry out due to meds
• Hand or body lotion (unscented for me)
• Quarters for vending machines (Use old medicine bottles filled with quarters.  My medicine bottles hold ten dollars of quarters)
• CD of calming music 
• Mints like Altoids come in easily sealed containers or individually packaged mints don't need an enclosed container and can be shared with visitors
• Prepacked crackers with peanut butter or cheese for a quick snack 
• Nuts (check diets, some won't allow nuts but family members who are staying over may like this healthy snack)
• Green tea bags along with a microwavable cup or disposable cup, plastic spoon and sugar packets if necessary

Now with all that good stuff  the task is to make these random things look pretty in a basket.  We used a package of mens low socks and they came in a package of twelve.  Packaged the socks just took up space and did not look pretty at all in the basket of goodies so I took them out of the package and started to roll them when an idea popped into my head....rolled socks can look like a rose bud!  Using a skewer from my pantry or you can use Popsicle sticks or craft sticks of some kind to make your rose buds. So here goes!

 Start with a pair of low cut socks or short socks and a skewer or some sort of craft stick.  Fold the toe end down to hide any writing that may be on the toe.  Make sure the heel is to the top as seen in picture.  Begin a slight downward spiral, allowing the heel to wrap outward a little to create a petal for the bud. I used a rubber band and wrapped securely to keep the sock on the stick. 

Cut a strip of felt about 12 long and tapered from about 3 inches wide on one end tapering to about an inch on the opposite end.  Start with the narrowest end and wrap around the rubber band.  Secure with hot glue when the felt begins to overlap.  (glue felt to felt not the sock) Randomly cut a leaf shape on the wide edge of the felt with the remaining flap of felt.  Allow leaf shapes to vary, some small, some larger.  Vary colors of green from lime green to deep green. 

Once you have a dozen sock roses you can bundle them into a bouquet.

I gathered mine in a loose bundle, secured the bundled sticks with a rubber band so the roses stayed as I had them.  I wrapped the bouquet with paper by cutting a piece of paper 12" by 12", turned it to make a diamond shape with one corner at the top.  I then created a cone shape which wrapped around the sock roses exposing the socks and the pointed end of the cone behind the bouquet.