Making A Thrifty Christmas

Another Update

2008-12-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I haven't updated in a while. I have a nasty cold, but I have still been sewing. While this cold is slowing me down I refuse to let it stop me. I finished all the aprons yesterday, another mother daughter set made with the duet apron pattern and a boy apron made from tracing an apron I already have.

After that I made six gift bags, simple draw string bags. I am working on making all reusable gift bags this year. I got the fabric for them a couple of years ago when Walmart put their Christmas fabric on clearance for $0.25 a yard. They are so fast and easy to make and the plan is to reuse them year after year.

Everything but the car fabric for the little boy apron came from my stash and I got the 1/2 yard for the boy apron on black Friday when flannel was $1.50 a yard so my total for these current projects is $0.75. I am currently working on 2 sets of pjs for my sister which I hope to finish and post about tomorrow.

I sewed today!

2008-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Sewing actually occured today and I finished three duet aprons; 2 kid aprons and 1 mom apron. I have one more mother daugher set to do, but it will have to happen tomorrow. Here are pictures of what I accomplished :).

Tuesday Update

2008-12-09T20:02:00.000-08:00

So...I did not end up sewing today, BUT I spent 3+ hours working on Christmas presents. Remember those family photos I posted about? Well, I am sorry to say that that have just been sitting here in my computer since they were taken. But today I edited them in photoshop, nothing fancy, just cropping, sizing and some exposure touch ups. Then I uploaded them to snapfish and made flipbooks out of the pictures. They are $5.99 for 10 pictures, bound with a clear vinal cover (Can we say easy brag book?). It gets better though, if you order more than one you get 25% off AND for the next two days you get free shipping with the coupon code SHIP08. So, even though it is a significant chunk of my $50, for $28.50 I got 6 presents and was able to check off ALL grandparents as gifts complete and a significant portion of all parent gifts complete. Not a bad day's work if I do say so myself. Tomorrow the sewing will commence...

Update

2008-12-08T20:53:00.000-08:00

Stepping in to give a quick update, I just spent an hour and a half cutting out 5 duet aprons. I hope to sew them together tomorrow.

Setting A Goal

2008-12-07T19:39:00.001-08:00

Do you ever have one of those weeks where everything seems to stop you from doing what you planned? I had planned on sewing several times this week, but every time I was going to sew, something seemed to come up, from family obligations, to curch obligations to getting sick. I could make a long list of excuses, but what it comes down to is I haven't accomplished any Christmas gifts this week :(.

But tomorrow is a new day, and with that in mind I am going to set a goal to sew for at least one hour a day every day till the end of the contest on Monday, December 15th. I will try to update this blog every day as well. To accomplish this, I have talked to my husband and asked him to help me with my goal and I am planning on using a babysitter as well. I know I can do this if I try. Please check back and see how I'm doing.

FINALLY some Christmas sewing...

2008-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

So, Thanksgiving week was very busy with family and shopping and kids. I didn't get a chance to sew till Saturday, but I sewed 8 hours that day and made.... 7 chef hats. I used the You Can Make This FREE pattern. I used a 100% cotton sheet that I bought on clearance, but my husband disliked because it didn't feel as smooth as our sateen sheets. Oh well, said I and put that sheet set in my fabric stash to use for later. I'm glad I had all that fabric because I used the whole queen fitted sheet to make 3 adult hats and 4 youth hats (plus 1 youth hat I messed up on). I thought the pattern was pretty easy and they turned out really cute. Now I just have to make the aprons to go with them.

My First Gift

2008-11-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

My first gift is off to a good start and I didn't even have it on my list of gifts to make. That was because I wasn't going to be sewing anything for it, but it turned out I got to do some sewing after all.

We took family pictures today as part of my mom's Christmas present and dh wanted Jovi to have a dress instead of jeans and a button up shirt like the rest of us. Repurosing items (old clothes, bedsheets ect.) is a great way to save money so instead of buying a dress, I made one out of jeans I got for $0.25 at a garage sale and 1/2 a yard of fabric. I altered the top from CarlaC's A-line pattern (found HERE) and just added a skirt.

went to a park and had my sister who is taking a photography class take the pictures. We may try again another day, getting a good picture of a preschooler and a baby at the same time is next to impossible, but here are the best of the pictures.

Thanks for looking. I'm planning on working on all the chef hats tomorrow.

THE list

2008-11-23T12:03:00.001-08:00

To give you a little more information about myself than my profile sentence offers; I am a SAHM with a 3 year old daughter and a 10 month old son. I've been co-teaching an at home preschool for 3 other 3year olds along with my daughter since August. I am a cub scout den leader and do a lot with my church. My mom taught me to sew when I was a child, but I was nver very interested in it. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my daughter that I really started sewing. I made curtains and a quilt for her and then started making cloth diapers and it snowballed from there. Now I enjoy making just about anything fabric/ sewing related you can think of. I consider myself an intermediate sewer BUT I still have a lot to learn, I've only ever put in one zipper and am always trying to improve.

So, this year in my family (the first year we have ever done it) we chose names and are in charge of getting all the presents for that person. I chose one of my sisters and my husband chose my mom.

My list of gifts to make is somewhat long, but hopefully doable;

5 simple friend gifts (I'm thinking of doing the FREE Home for the holidays pillow hanger, pattern found HERE )

Gift for preschool kids and co-teacher:
4 kid chef hats and 2 adult chef hats (FREE pattern found HERE )
4 kid aprons and 2 adult aprons (using the pattern found HERE )
4 felt food sets (I'm thinking a simple breakfast set or *maybe* the Bugabugs bread set found HERE)

Sister present:
P.J. set (need to buy pattern)
Tote Bag (self drafted pattern)

SIL present:
Purse (to be decided pattern)

Mom present:
Church Tote (self drafted pattern)

Corbin (10m old son):
First Doll (not youcanmakethis.com, but I love, love love this doll pattern HERE)
soft blocks (wing it)

Jovi (3year old daughter):
Felt Play Food, as much as I can make (I'm using various tutorial, winging it and planning on buying patterns from Bugga Bugs for anything else I can't figure out
)Play Cape and Play Crown
Maybe some doll clothes made whe I make my Twirls for Girls doll clothes (I'm hoping to make at least 8 sets for Toys for Tots), check out this great cause and FREE patterns HERE

I sure hope I can get it all done by December 15th, that would be SOOOO awsome!

I Love You Can Make This

2008-11-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

I've been a fan of the site www.YouCanMakeThis.com for a while now. It is a site that sells mom made ebooks on a variety of crafty/ sewing topics. They also have some great FREE patterns and sometimes a contest. I am currently a member of the "Thrifty Fifty". 50 people were chosen to try and make as many Christmas gifts as they can for under $50 by Dec. 15th. I am SO excited to be part of this challenge. Please check back often for updates on how I'm doing. My next post will give you a little more info about me an a list of presents that I will be working on for the contest.