Re-post: Making Gifts by Hand

I'm going to re-post a couple of my Christmas gifts ideas from last year. I'm not making gifts this year due to having a baby!!! But, I loved doing these last year:

____________________________________

Over the coming week, I'll highlight the gifts I'm hand-making for Christmas.

I making about 1/2 my Christmas gifts to various family. Counting my parents, our kids, my sibling and his family, my mom's family, dad's family, and some of my husband's side; we usually have about 15-20 gifts we exchange. It is really nice getting all those presents given to us. But it is a little expensive to give that many every year for our growing family; hence, the handmade approach:)

Of course, I'll still be shopping the stores and looking for other gifts but this helps balance the shopping budget and I really enjoy it!

The first is a scarf I made two years ago and cost me about $1.75 to make per scarf. Everyone who got one loved them. I am blessed to have a new sewing machine that my mom bought me last summer, so that helps. These are so easy and take little time. (note: I'm not a professional sewer, so my directions aren't great but you'll get the hang of it:)

• First, find the fabric you want. I looked through a J-crew catalog at their scarves and what color/kind of fabric was "in style" that season. Then, I found this fabric that looked almost exactly like the catalog ones. This fabric was on the clearance rack at walmart when I did this 2 years ago.
  


• Then measure you're fabric to desired length. Double the width so that you can use what I call the "inside our method". Cut your fabric the length of your scarf and double the width.



• Then, you're simply going to sew along the edge of the scarf all of the side put on end.



• Then, turn inside out and hand-sew the closure.

I made about 4 of these and gave them out and then made one for myself because I liked it so much. This year, I'm going to get a fabric with thicker stripes, maybe blue/chocolate brown or green/white, we'll see what the fabric store has. I'm making a couple of these again this year. Last time I made them, it took me about 1 1/2 hours to make 4. I also keep Christmas bags and re-use nice paper that hasn't been wrinkled. Last time, I made 4 of them, re-used gift bags from previous years; making the total around $7 and I kept hearing how much people loved them. (I have to say, the trick is finding the perfect fabric...so happy hunting)


The next gift is something I'm making for our kid's room. So it is more of a holiday craft then a gift....or maybe it's a gift to myself. They are from the "Martha Stewart Holiday Handmade Magazine" that comes out every year. I'm not a huge Martha Stewart person but her editors sure do come up with good handmade gift ideas every year! They are animals made of wool sweaters.

• Find some old wool sweaters in the back of your closet or at thrift store. Who doesn't have a few woolen sweaters that, though no longer worn, are too dear to part with? Gather these, or buy sweaters from a thrift shop, and use them to create cozy felt gifts.




• When wool is washed and dried, it is transformed: The fibers pull together to produce the soft, thick fabric we call felt. To begin, machine-wash a woolen garment in hot water, and toss it in a dryer set to a high temperature. (You may need to wash and dry it more than once. If you can snip the fabric with scissors and it doesn't fray, it's felted.)




• Then it's a matter of cutting out shapes and stitching pieces together. If you want patterns for these animals, look online at the martha stewart living website.
  
  
  
  
  
  

These are the wool sweaters I found in the back of my closet that won't be worn again. I can't wait to see them as little animals on my kid's toy shelves:)

Some people choose not to give gifts to "save money". I say with a little thought and some time, you can give a gift that costs $1.75 or less, that the person will usually love. So if you're pinched this holiday season or just cheap:), think it over and look for ways to give something special instead of not giving at all.