I can sew! Kind of...

I have been an HGTV fan for years. LOVE it. Unfortunately I didn't think I could do very much home decorating now that our budget is so tight. But that was before a sewing machine came into my life and I realized that most of the things you buy are actually made by someone -so why shouldn't I cut out the middle man and make it myself!?


I am still learning and these curtains are not done yet - they are different lenghts despite my incredibly precise measureing skills (insert frustrated sigh and sobs of despair) BUT they look pretty good I think and they fram up our glass doors very nicely. They are also great for keeping the air conditioning INSIDE the house and preventing the sun from heating us so much during the summer.


I also got inspired by this website, where I found these tutorials, and somehow managed to make this:



Cool huh? Why all the yellow and green you ask? Hubby and I have always liked yellow kitchens so we painted the kitchen yellow, and then we found this dishtowel at Wal-Mart and loved how the yellow looked with the green. So there you go! PS If you are wondering where I get my creativity from, trust me it does not come from THIS lady's noggin - it comes from this one. Visit my mom's blog and check out her new Etsy shop with lots of cute purses! Here's a picture of the one she made for me (that I LOVE) and here's how she made it.

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.