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Friday, February 1, 2008

Frugal Friday - Making it yourself

One frugal way of living I've discovered recently is that I can actually make the things I need - I don't necessarily need to buy them all. This was an oddly profound moment for me. My mom at Homemaking Dreams, loves to sew and quilt and is always making gorgeous handbags and household items. For example she recently made me some cloth napkins, which I use a lot, in fact I've stopped purchasing paper towels all-together. So my mom is partially responsible for my new found realization. The other culprit is my new/very, very old sewing machine. My Grandmother died in a car accident 8 years this month, and for 8 years her old Kenmore sewing machine has been resting in its cabinet in her home - until my Aunt came across and thought I might be interested - YES I WAS! In fact I had a very surreal moment when I pulled it into the house and plugged it in. I simultaneously realized I did not know hot to thread a sewing maching, AND that the machine was STILL threaded from the last time my Grandma had used it. So I examined how she did it and learned. It brought tears to my eyes to be able to learn something special from her 8 years after her passing. So there's my backstory - here's the frugal part:

I've been using online tutorials to actually MAKE things with my sewing machine! This past Saturday I made a bathmat (pictured below). Who knew you could MAKE a bathmat?? They are fairly expensive at the store and it never occured to me that I could design one myself and for only about 5 dollars!

In addition to my bathmat, I am sewing curtains for my kitchen. Most full length curtain panels that I've seen cost anywhere from $20 and up, EACH. Yesterday I found Clearance fabric that matches our kitchen perfectly - and for only $15 total I'm making custom curtain panels (3 of them!).

For Crafty ideas and to see take part of the GRAND OPENING of the Homemaking Dreams Etsy Shop visit HomeMaking Dreams. For more Frugal Friday tips visit Biblical Womanhood.

4 comments:

Debbie J said...

I like your post and am so proud of you! Thanks for the Etsy Shop plug too!

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Great job and it is SO CUTE! I wish I could use a sewing machine. Maybe one day...

Anonymous said...

I can attest to your mom's wonderful sewing talent - she makes beautiful items!

Looks like you are well into following in her footsteps with sewing. Even though you are young it sounds as if you are very wise. What a great idea to make your own bath mat.

I'm hoping to finally learn to sew this year myself.

By the way, your little son is adorable.

Little Penpen said...

Love the bath mat. You must share how you did that. I have a hard time finding mats that I like in the store. (love the sweet story about the threaded sewing machine, threaded by Grandma's hands)