As we move into 2008′s extended holiday period, more than a few families are wondering if there will be a Christmas this year. Sure, some retailers are going all out to stay open long enough to see if anybody’s buying this year, but with consumer credit at a virtual standstill, international trade languishing on the docks and jobs being lost by the thousands every week, it’s a no-brainer that this Christmas isn’t going to be ‘the usual’ consumer spending orgy of Christmases past.

Presuming that your family still has a home, can heat it, and enough income to put food on the table, there are ways to have a festive, meaningful Christmas without going further into debt and without ending up with cheap Chinese junk that nobody really wants or needs.

The best thing you can do for your family is Make Your Own, and involve the kids! We save old Christmas cards in a box in the closet, pull them out around Thanksgiving and use them, plus various saved papers, made papers, trims, sequins, glitter, buttons, studs, etc. to make brand new Christmas cards for the people in our lives. Scissors and glue, a paper cutter, maybe some cutsey hole punches and lots of odds and ends, these cards inevitably get saved by every Mom, Grandma or other friend/relative who gets them! And kids are especially creative in this area. Sure you’ll have to clean up the mess, but a great time was had by all.

There are schedulers, list-keepers, budding writers and artists in just about every family. So another great gift are notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and schedulers you can make or buy. My friends over at Casual Keystrokes have compiled a worthy list of the best of the best journals, notebooks, sketchbooks and schedulers available online, some of them offer great deals and discounts.

If you really want to put some ‘self’ into it, the ideas and designs of some of those items Keystrokes suggests can be used as models for do it yourself gift projects. My grandson learned how to make leather bound notebooks in school, has really turned it into an art form. He collects old used leather jackets from Goodwill and other thrift shops, and recycles that leather for bindings. The neatest looking ones are patchwork of different kinds of leather, bound together with leather glue (can be purchased at a craft supply store).

Paper can be bought or made, but making can be fun. Did you know that you can make fine paper from collected dryer lint? Frugal Living offers the recipe and details on how to do this. Fine handmade paper bound in a fine handmade leather bound book can be the most delightful gift under the tree for anyone who loves to write, doodle, or keep meticulous notes.

You might be surprised at how useful that dryer lint can be to the dedicated crafter. PlanetPal offers recipes and instructions for how to make lint paper mache and lint clay as well as lint paper. And if there are very young ones on your Christmas list, there are some great patterns and instructions for how to make stuffed animals and dolls, and that dryer lint makes great stuffing too!

There is also the tradition of “Hobbit Presents” that some families find so fun. This is the practice of re-giving a previous year’s gift to someone else. When it’s unwrapped, the family can remember where it came from, who has enjoyed it, and who gave it to whom. These sort of gifts need to be more substantial than cheap plastic stuff from China, but quality items handmade with skill and care make great Hobbit Presents. Pride in craftsmanship is something children miss out on too much these days. Teaching them, encouraging them and helping them learn to value such things from themselves and others won’t hurt them a bit.

So it’s November. Get busy!!!

Links:

‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas
Casual Keystrokes
Making Paper from Dryer Lint
Lint Craft Recipes
Stuffed Toy Patterns

At our house we’ve been getting the winter flannels, sweaters, long johns, excess blue jeans and coats out of the boxes and closets they’ve been hiding in since last spring, and I am once again amazed at how much of this stuff we’ve got. I gave up long ago trying to figure out where it all comes from, since it just seems to show up in my laundry, in 55-gallon trash bags in the shed, piled into storage nooks and crannies, etc. A lot of it doesn’t really fit anybody in my family, and I’ve suspected more than once that old clothes stashed away like that reproduce in the dark just like wire coat hangers do…

I’m usually amazed as well at how much of this excess fabric is frayed, holey or otherwise compromised enough not to be wearable without major repair (and they’ll still look pretty ragged). These are the kind of old clothes the Goodwill doesn’t want, you can’t really use, and would most likely end up taking space in a landfill somewhere if you don’t do something else with it.

Luckily, there are some really cool things you can do with all these cast-aways that will turn them into coveted gifts for your loved ones and items you may not want to give away when you’re done with them.

All those unraveling old sweaters would make an excellent lap or baby quilt. It takes some care, but could become a regular family heirloom for just the right person. Cut off the sweater body from right underneath the arms, and then cut off the cinch-ribbing at the bottom. Open one side seam and you’ve got a rectangle about 18″ wide and 3′ long. If there are holes in the body, you can cut away that part.

You’ll want to sew the strip or square to an underlining of lightweight muslin (or material from an old sheet) to prevent it from unraveling. I’d go ahead and zig-zag behind the fine straight stitch as well, just to make the quilt last longer through many washings. The pieces can be large or relatively small, regular or irregular in shape. Just piece them together into the size of quilt you want, and sew them together in the usual way. Line with thin quilt batting and line with flannel. I like flannel for the edging too. Tie-quilt it with color-coordinating yarn or buttons 8-10 inches apart.

The sweater bodies can also be turned into throw pillows, and arm sections can be stitched together to make winter scarves and hats, or mitten liners. Old Christmas-themed sweaters or sweatshirts can be used to make Christmas stockings or tree skirts. The cut off cuffs and waistband ribs of sweaters can be turned into nice coozies for drinks, and smaller squares of sweaters make nice potholders and oven mitts.

Again underline with muslin and sew the panels right-sides together on three sides. Turn it inside out, turn the fourth edge under and whipstitch.

You might even consider making stuffed animals out of old sweaters. They’re automatically cuddly, and make great Teddy bears, rabbits or other stuffed critters.

Old blue jeans can also be cut and stitched into some nifty items. There is of course the basic blue jeans quilt, but think about the possibilities of a quilted blue jeans slipcover for your couch, or even upholstery! The pockets make useful TV remote holders or a place to stash pens and note pads, etc. Cut off the legs where they join the crotch and sew the bottom with a double seam, maybe some beaded or yarn fringe, attach a sturdy strap made from material from the legs and you’ve a fine purse. Put a rope through the belt loops to cinch it, or attach a flap cut from leg material.

If you’ve got teenage boys (as we do around here) you’ve probably got some of those baggy, big-legged jeans with destroyed pant bottoms where they’ve been dragged on the ground and walked on. There’s enough material in those pant legs to make some nice shopping totes or book bags. I’ve even seen a used jeans backpack with rivets and pockets all over the place!

Jeans Couch by Karen Robbins

The only thing I’d add to your imaginings of the nifty things you could make out of all those old jeans, is the idea of leaving a topside raw edge when you’re quilting the pieces together, still using the double seam. As the material is handled these raw edges will fray, or you can help them along by pulling the weft. Looks comfy.

Check out some of the great links below to get you going, and follow some of their links to patterns and helpful hints. One of the most coveted of Christmas gifts among my family and friends over the years are new-and-better comforters, quilts and pillow covers, along with the hats, scarves and mitten-liners that go in the stockings. Tell us about some of the cool things you’ve done with old clothes!

Links:

Textile Fusion: Project Workshops

Blue Jean Blankie

Blue-Jean Bed Skirt

Frugal Life: Blue Jeans

Blue Jeans Quilts

Wise Bread: 25 Things To Do With Old Jeans

Simply Thrifty: 13 Things You Can Make Out of Your Old Blue Jeans

Thrifty Fun: Craft Uses for Old Jeans

Yes, the holiday season is upon us again, just when we are trying to adjust what the government does to our internal clocks twice a year (just to mess with our heads, I am convinced). It’s a time of get-togethers and feasts with family and friends, and the sometimes scary specter of gift-giving that puts such a huge dent in people’s tight budgets these days.

So I thought this is probably a good time to talk about gifts that cost little to nothing, but are always gladly received and mean more than just some trinket you could buy at the store.

Does that sound kind of strange in this era of conspicuous consumerism, where even 5-year olds brag to each other about how much their gifts cost (and how that means Santa must love them more?). Probably not to those of us who have given up conspicuous consumerism and found that we like it. Yet I am talking about gifts that hold enough thought and effort on your part to impress even the richest, most disdainful member of your family, who has always considered you a true failure of Capitalism for your choices in life. In my case that would be Aunt Edna and Uncle Francis.

Strangely enough, both Edna and Francis have come to look so forward to whatever I’ll come up with this year that they don’t even tut-tut my homemade Christmas stockings, kudzu-vine wreath or duct-taped tree anymore. We usually cut 2 or 3 scraggly scotch pines from the property, duct tape them together, then trim them to tie up against the wall in the corner from floor to 15′ ceiling. Even tape filler branches where necessary, then decorate. Doesn’t last but about 3 weeks, but it burns big and bright on New Year’s Eve in the back yard fire pit. Works for us!

If you’ve got a few seasons in on the homestead garden and are getting pretty good at putting up foodstuff, gifts of your homemade jellies, jams, fruit compotes and butters are always welcome. I make a brandied blackberry concoction my sophisticated older sister thinks is the most gourmet thing ever – she saves it for ‘important’ occasions and spoons it onto French vanilla ice cream, and has told me at least three ambassadors have begged for some to take home! You can dress up the jars with fabric circles under the rings and ribbon around the neck. Holiday hostesses like this sometimes better than wine! Of course if you make wine – or wine vinegars and herbed vinegars – these are also most welcome hostess gifts.

Gifts fresh from the kitchen are also popular. I bake huge batches of Christmas cookies and brownies in wide variety to send out to distant family and dear friends, including the younger set serving in the military. I also cook up nut brittles (including hickory nut brittle – you can’t believe how good it is!) and fudge. Chocolate fudge, cherry vanilla fudge, pumpkin fudge, peanut butter fudge, chocolate mint fudge, maple sugar fudge. This is also individually wrapped. I collect holiday tins which are great for the cookies and candy you’ll be keeping at your house for guests, or to go ahead and send to loved ones. You can pick up these tins in all sizes for pittance at garage sales, neighborhood yard sales and second-hand stores.

If you like to sew, making quilts and comforters can go quickly if you use the machine for most of it, and these can be baby or lap size to king size depending on what old clothes, blankets, sheets and such that you have on hand to recycle into it. If you knit or crochet, hats, scarves and mittens are nice to get.

You can even get the kids in on the act and let them help you make homemade Christmas cards with scrapbooking goodies – very fun – as well as gifts for their own friends, family and teachers. Sand candles are always fun to make, sachets, artwork and picture frames, sock dolls, painted flowerpots, cute cell phone covers… the list is endless.

Check the ideas in some of the links below, see what you’ve got to work with or can get easily, and start setting aside days on the weekends for family gift-making projects. There are dozens of great ideas there, with links to full instructions for each of them. The kids will get into the spirit in no time, and the holiday season will seem less like a consumerist nightmare while becoming a time of heartfelt giving. It’ll be fun again!

Links:

Not Made Of Money: 50 Homemade Gift Ideas

Pioneer Thinking: Gift Ideas

Easy Homemade Gifts

Amazing Moms: Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make

We’ve covered the subject of thrifting, or purchasing second hand, but there are times when you’ve just got to have new. Shoes, socks and underwear, new clothes, winter coats, household items, art and craft supplies, whatever. If your budget is tight, before you go shopping you might wish to find out where the factory outlet stores and discount outlets in your area are.

These are retail outlets that carry factory-direct items, seconds, and clothing, shoes, coats, bedding or household items in discontinued styles or colors. The prices are significantly lower than can be found at most stores, and the products are usually made in America.

Living on a shoestring budget requires a person to be resourceful, and it doesn’t hurt to remember some of the things you were taught in Home Ec classes, like how to sew. Many community colleges offer evening classes where you can learn the basics for a small fee. Schools, churches and businesses often offer evening classes in crafting, where you may find that you’ve a real flair for making things yourself.

For instance, my daughter and grandson went shopping at an outlet store last weekend. He bought a nice pair of goth-style pants for $8 because they were missing a drawstring on the hem of one leg. He got a dark green collared shirt with shoulder tabs for $4 because it’s a discontinued style. And my daughter got a nice pair of black slacks for $1 because one of the back pockets is stitched closed. You have to inspect factory seconds carefully before you buy, make sure that what’s wrong is something you can live with or fix yourself. If the zipper is broken, you should know how to install a new zipper. If the arms in that shirt are two different lengths, you probably won’t want it (unless your arms are two different lengths).

I’ve seen winter coats at the coat factory outlet for $10 in discontinued styles that will keep you plenty warm and look very nice. I’ve bought shoes for $10 or less that last just as long as $50 shoes and are every bit as fashionable. In many cities a group of factory outlet stores can be found all together in a strip mall. And because I live in an area where there are several textile factories, there are outlets for fabrics and accessories as well. At one, there is a bin of stuffed comforter fabric that goes for $3 a pound – all it needs is binding on the edges and a pound is enough to spread 2 full sized beds.

Getting supplies for crafts and useful items (like comforters) at deep discounts also allows you to make gifts for people that are very much appreciated. Weddings and showers, Christmas and birthdays, baby things. You’d be surprised how much money people spend on gifts over a year’s time, and there’s always an occasion coming up where someone would be thrilled to get something you’ve made yourself.

It takes a little investigative work to find the outlets in your area, but they should be listed in the local yellow pages. With a plan of action and an itinerary you won’t waste any gas getting around, either. Many craft and wedding supplies can be purchased at deep discount over the internet direct from the factories, supply warehouses or on eBay. When money is tight you don’t have to do without, you just have to restrain the urge to make impulse purchases or shop at higher-end stores. There’s no reason to pay a hundred dollars for a winter coat at the mall when you could buy the identical coat at a factory outlet for $25.

And the big up-side to learning how to buy at discount and make things yourself is that your family, friends and neighbors will notice. Before you know it you could be organizing fun shopping excursions with your friends, and might be earning a little money by creating centerpieces, door prizes, wall wreaths and silk arrangements for other people’s weddings, banquets and baby showers!

Links:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Household Solutions

Peak Directory: Online Discount Outlets

Discount Craft Supplies

Anything Crafts

“Is that a blunderbuss in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
Mae West

When the kids head back to school after summer vacation, parents have to spend money on supplies. In my state of North Carolina, merchants are exempted from state sales tax requirements on basic school supplies – notebooks, back-packs, filler paper, pencils and pens, etc. as well as clothing sales, which is a help for the less-than wealthy. I always take advantage of those tax-free days to buy the hardware supplies. But even without sales tax, clothing is expensive.

My grandson’s in high school, so this household has been trying to keep up with his needs as well as styles and clothing trends for a long time. If you’re as lucky as we are to have youngsters who are more style-setters than fashion followers, you’re already two steps ahead of the game.

In a later post I’ll discuss some useful resources for the more stylish and/or necessary aspects of wardrobe acquisition, which my daughter calls “Professional Thrifting.” In this post, I just want to talk about my grandson’s fashion wish-list, because it’s not that hard to accommodate…

Grandson in his summer pirate gear helping Grandpa with his fire-eating act at the annual Bele Chere festival in downtown Asheville.

He’s a pirate this year. Yes, the Johnny Depp variety, which I’m sure will cause no end of late evening phone calls from swooning, giggling girls. For this style he’s able to use those amazingly put-together black emo-style baggies with all the studs and zippers and pant-bottoms you detach, which makes them knicker-length to show off his red and white striped or black and grey striped knee socks (he stocks up on those at Christmas). So cool – we don’t have to run out and buy new pants!

Luckily, I’ve been a professional costumer for our family entertainment troupe for the past 25 years. Thought about being a fashion designer in high school, but costuming is both design and construction! My mother sewed, taught me when I was young, and I did pay attention in Home-Ec. That’s a skill that has come in handy all my life, not less so now that I’m a granny. Thus since my grandson bought “Pirates of the Carribean” I’ve plenty of opportunity to spot the details of style, and put together the rest of his wardrobe. Minus boots and accessories he’ll have to purchase elsewhere with his own money.

The shirts and vest are not difficult. 4 yards of unbleached cotton muslin, medium weight, will make a fine shirt. These things are old-fashioned, open v-neck, double yoke, gathered sleeve things you just can’t find in stores. Luckily they’re roomy enough to accommodate some growth, and if constructed carefully will last a couple of years even if washed every other day.

Patterns for pirate shirts are available from the usual companies, and useful if you aren’t accustomed to making it up as you go along. 4 yards of muslin will cost about $10 if not on sale, some mail-order suppliers sell in bulk (12 or more yards, good stuff to have on hand) for a buck a yard or less.

Vest patterns are also readily available, or you can do what I do – use a vest as a pattern. Just be sure to leave room for the seams (5/8″) all around, and choose your material carefully. Grandson’s will have front panels in a lined cotton/poly broadcloth of dark brown/black with a subtle pirate theme. Daughter found it at a fabric store next to where she works, it only takes a yard per vest so that was $7.00. For vest back and lining your basic black satin or grosgrain taffeta works great. Just be sure you wash and dry the panel fabric first so it won’t shrink and seriously disrupt the garment, as the lining and back material is usually rayon or some such petro-fiber.

Cotton batik fabric – usually as wrap-around skirts, shawls and other such garments – can be found at thrift stores in most localities. These make excellent head-scarves, which for a pirate need to be long enough to drape down the back when tied. Fat leather belts are also cheap at the secondhand stores, and pirates need lots of these. Your basic felt tricorn hat can be had at any costume shop in your town or on the internet (usually cheaper via ‘net) for less than $20.

For the finishing touch, those striped knee socks are invaluable. And don’t forget the broad fabric sash, definitely a pirate must-have. These are easily made of any fabric that strikes your fancy, I’ve made several out of dollar bin castaways nobody would ever really wear, but with great maroon and gold paisley or some other fine pattern. Attach fringe, maybe even bead some of it, and be sure it can be wrapped twice and tied to leave at least two feet of drape.

Aaaarrrr, Matey! Pirates rule.

Some sources for pirate patterns, costumes & stuff:

Fun Shop Costumes

House of Dra (Ren Costumes)

Simplicity Pattern Catalogue

FREE costume patterns