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Clothesline ShowerOut with the wash! Laundry is never much fun no matter how you try to make it so. Thankfully today we have many devices to speed it up, including our energy efficient dryers, but nothing smells more like home than sundried laundry. That is probably why Clothesline Showers are still popular, but I think that there is nothing sweeter than seeing tiny little baby clothes hanging on a line, which is my reason for having a Clothesline Baby Shower.
I would hold off on balloons and streamers for this theme since you are going to be pretty busy hanging up clotheslines. First I would hang some along the walls and place long white sheets or pieces of fabric to them. This will give the appearance of being outside. If you are having it outside, white sheets billowing in the wind around the shower will give you privacy and provide your guests with images of running between crisp blowing clothes. I’m a sucker for imagery if you can’t tell. Avoid blocking the natural light because you want to give the impression of a sunny summer’s day (which is pretty hard to accomplish in the middle of winter). If you prefer to use large sheets of white paper, do so and then write some words of advice on each one. As guests arrive, you can get them to add their own advice or thoughts to the papers before you place them on the line. The next clotheslines could be strung around the room and you can either place the odd baby item on them or you could ask guests to bring baby pictures that can be pinned to the line (this comes in handy when playing the game that we mention below). One word of warning when you do this is to avoid overdoing the clotheslines. You don’t want people to feel like the space look messy and you also want to be able to stand up without hitting your head. Lastly, have some nice, brightly colored tablecloths for the gift and food tables and also have a few blankets draped around the room. You can also put a few laundry baskets down to use for the gifts or to fill with clothing that needs to go up on the line. All the clothing can be included in your gift to mom. Also: main decorations section Invitations You could make your own cards for this shower or find cute invitations with clotheslines online. You can also pick up small felt baby clothes designed for cards along with miniature clotheslines and clothespins. Decorate the front of your invitation with these, and your invitation will say everything it needs to say. Also: main invitations section
When you choose gifts for a Clothesline Baby Shower, the main gift idea is to provide things that would hang on a clothesline. Purchase items like bibs, sleepers, onesies, outfits and etc. Usually a clothesline shower is used to allow mom the chance to stock up on the much need layette for her baby. For the guests, I would give things that seem suited to a clothesline party. You could give them a cloth covered journal for example, or a fun t-shirt. Or you might do small gift cards to malls, department stores, clothing stores or linen stores. The prizes for the games can be the same as the gifts and gift cards are great here. Another thought is to have embroidered tablecloths, bedding, cute aprons, towels, handkerchiefs or anything else that could be seen on a clothing line and does not need to be fitted. Also: main gift section & main favors section
Like many other themes, there is no set food for a clothesline baby shower. You could add clotheslines to the decorations or you could do a mini clothesline tree that holds the little sugar packets and stuff for the tea and coffee. You could even place the napkins on the clothesline but remember to have some of them loose since some guests might not appreciate having to take the stuff down off the clothesline. Also: main recipe section
There are lots of games that you can play during a clothesline shower. You could have a game where guests need to match socks, the first person who matches all her socks correctly wins, or you could have a clothes folding race where the first person to finish folding the clothes in her basket wins (this is a great way to get your laundry done, just kidding.) You could also have a clothes hanging race that works along the same lines as the clothes hanging. Lastly, you could take all those wonderful photographs that you have hanging around your head and play a revised version of the Guess the Baby game, which was contributed by Lisa T. Don’t forget to return those photographs at the end of the shower. Also: main games section Do you have an idea to add to this theme? Send it to us!
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