Christmas on a Budget Series – Two No-Sew Christmas Ideas

I love to sew, but I know there are those who either can’t or simply don’t want to, so for this month’s Christmas on a Budget post I thought I’d share two inexpensive no-sew ideas for things you can start collecting now to have ready come December.

First up…

Our family is making the switch from using paper gift wrapping that gets used once and then is thrown away to wrapping that can be reused year after year.  These Christmas themed tins come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be picked up for pennies at your local thrift store.

In fact, the ones pictured above ranged in price from 29 cents to 39 cents.  For less than $1.50, I now have 5 tins ready to pop gifts into in the weeks before Christmas.  All it takes is a bit of tape to hold the lids on and keep the overly inquisitive from peeking at their gifts and they’ll be ready to place under the tree.

When I brought them home and showed them to Dave, I said, “Wouldn’t some little one just love to see a tag with their name on it on this bear tin.”  Dave replied, “Not just a little one, I’d love seeing a tag with my name on that tin too.”   Ahhh… that man is a keeper.

Next up… is an idea that I’ve been seeing on quite a few of the home schooling blogs and which I think would make a great gift to give to a family with young children; either as a family gift or given as a set to the individual children.

They are called Busy Bags and are plastic zip bags with a simple project or game to keep young children busy.   Many of them can be put together with things you might already have around the house or after a quick trip to the dollar or craft store.

These Colouring Busy Bags took me all of 15 minutes to put together, no trip to the store necessary. I simply printed several colouring book pages off the net, trimmed the paper to fit and popped them into the bags with boxes of crayons I picked up at last year’s Back to School sales.    A  search on colouring book pages brought up dozens of links.   For the bag on the right I printed off some Christmas pages from the Crayola site.  The bag on the left I printed images that I thought would appeal to either a boy or a girl. This link alone has over 5000 pages.

Following are a few links to some more homemade Busy Bag ideas:

Clothesline Busy Bag

I-Spy Bottle

Homemade Children’s Lacing Cards

This morning, I stopped off at the Dollar Tree and came home with all this for $9+ tax.

For older children, I found these Colouring and Activity Pads.  Tomorrow I’m going to hit the Back to School sales and pick up a couple of packs of pencil crayons to add to these.

Dollar Tree had a great selection of puzzles.  The one on the left would be suitable for 1st or 2nd graders.   I’m going to print out the nursery rhyme Hey, Diddle, Diddle to add to that busy bag.

The one on the left would keep 3rd and 4th graders busy while at the same time teaching them the States and their capitals.

Or you could make up a themed busy bag as I did with this Winnie the Pooh one.  This would be great to send along with a child that is spending the night with grandparents or on a sleepover.

Learning Cards could be put in individual quart sized zip bags or in a bag all together as I’ve done here.

And how about a craft kit or two.   This one called for a bottle of white glue but I thought a glue stick would make for less mess.  Craft kits would be a great way to use the 40% off coupons that Michaels and Hobby Lobby offer on a regular basis.

Wouldn’t a few of these Busy Bags packaged up in pretty basket make a great Christmas gift to give to a family with a newborn to help keep an older child (or children) occupied while Mom is nursing or Dad is bathing the baby, etc.

Or if you wanted to get a little more creative, you could put them in a box that you’ve decorated and label it “The Rainy Day Box.”

I plan on putting together a box or two with a variety of different busy bags not just as Christmas gifts but to have on hand for times when we have young children visiting.

I hope you’ll join me again in August for my next Christmas on a Budget series post when I’ll not only be sharing a tutorial or two for using that Christmas fabric you bought at the Christmas in July sales (remember last month’s post) but I’ll also be hosting a giveaway, as well.  And this time the giveaway will be open to all my readers wherever in the world they may live.

Recent Thrift Store Finds

I thought I’d share some of my recent thrift store finds.

I collect these glass wire bale jars to store my home grown dried herbs in, so these were a nice find at 99 cents each.

The rose shower curtain (100% cotton) will make a pretty quilt backing.  And the bright floral vintage sheet; I’m deciding between aprons or perhaps a fun summer skirt… maybe both.

I found this vintage Singer Buttonholer and extra set of templates at the Habitat for Humanity HomeMart.  They had it marked at $10.   I offered $5 and they accepted.  But I didn’t buy it for the buttonholer.  I bought it because I wanted the templates (those little grey things.)

When I bought my Singer 15-91, it came with a buttonholer but only one buttonhole template.  It’s the only part of the transaction that I wasn’t pleased with because the seller more or less shrugged off the fact the templates were missing by saying that you rarely find buttonholers included in the sale of vintage machines and there were lots of buttonholers available on Ebay to buy if I wanted more templates.

For the first time ever, I decided not to leave feedback for a seller.   I didn’t want to leave completely negative feedback because the 15-91 is exactly as described and sews great.  On the other hand, a buttonholer was advertised as part of the sale and it was missing important pieces; a buttonholer without templates is pretty much useless.  Ebay really doesn’t give enough room to explain things properly on their feedback form, so I decided no feedback was better than incomplete feedback.

Anyway, back to the buttonholer I got from the HomeMart.   That buttonholer was missing the needle plate cover but that wasn’t a problem since I was only interested in the templates.  I took all the templates from it and put them with the one that came with the 15-91 and now I have a complete set and I didn’t have to pay any extra for shipping like I would have done if I’d bought one off of Ebay.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the buttonholer from HomeMart.  Though I am thinking I might list it on ebay making sure to note that it only has one template.  Perhaps someone will want it for parts.

Art Deco Cabinet – Some Dis-Assembly Required

Dave spent the past few days taking apart and then sanding the Art Deco sewing cabinet and bench seat that we bought for my Singer 15-91.

This ended up being a bigger job than he had anticipated.  Not only did all the outside surfaces need to be sanded as expected, all the inside surfaces had to be sanded as well to completely remove the unpleasant odor.

At first, we assumed the odor was due to having sat unused for so long.   We tried washing it down, inside and out.  We changed buckets of water three times and each time the water was an awful brown by the time we got finished.  Then we let it sit outside for several days to air out (bringing it back into the garage each night.)

We think the previous owners must have been very heavy smokers and over the years, the smell and cigarette fumes had soaked into the finish.

Thank goodness, now that all surfaces have been sanded the cabinet just smells like wood.

The next step is to wipe all the pieces down with a damp cloth to remove any sanding dust that the vacuum didn’t get.  Then he’ll start the refinishing by re-staining the black strips along the bottom of the cabinet and bench seat and the drawer handles.

There Was Treasure Waiting To Be Found

I found some treasures in the drawers and bench seat of the Art Deco sewing machine cabinet.

This small envelope is just one of them.

I've blurred out the name for privacy... just in case the person is still living and at the same address.

The back of the envelope is cool too.

And inside…

Four and a half sheets of unused embroidery transfers.

I’m thinking I’m going to have to do those little chore girls in redwork on 10 or 12 inch blocks and then make a quilt out of them.

And then of course… those snails with washday, shop day, etc.   Wouldn’t it be fun to make some aprons with the snails embroidered on them?  I’d have an apron for each day of the week.

The flower ladies in the bottom left hand corner… pot holders, perhaps.  And those swans, I simply have to figure out something to use those swans on.

The bears and bunnies are adorable.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever use the transfers on the half sheet, but who knows.  They’re fun to have for sometime in the future.

I don’t plan on using the actual transfers as the paper is old and I don’t want to risk ruining them.  So instead, I’ll use the light box Dave made me to transfer the various designs to fabric.

I wasn’t able to find a date printed anywhere on the transfer sheets to be able to determine if the copyright might still be in effect.   Through a bit of research, I was able to find out that The Workbasket was published from 1935 to 1996 when it ceased publication and was sold to KC Publishing.  But according to this site, if they were published between 1923 through 1977 and didn’t have copyright notices on them, they are in the public domain.  I’m almost positive that these were published sometime in the 40s or 50s, but I’m going to have to do a bit more research to be sure.

These are so much fun, I’d love to be able to share them.

An Art Deco Cabinet For My Singer 15-91

Back in this post, I mentioned in passing that I had recently purchased this vintage Singer 15-91 off of ebay.

To get this picture, I temporarily evicted my Singer 7468 from the vintage sewing cabinet that Dave refinished for me earlier this year.

Since it arrived, I’ve been searching for a cabinet of it’s own to put it in.  Dave and I and our son have searched through several local antique/junk shops, never finding exactly what I was looking for.

I wanted something like that vintage cabinet that Dave refinished and retrofitted for my Singer 7468.   Something with a lid that flipped open to provide a large sewing area and something with drawers for storing threads, bobbins and other sewing notions.

Every other day or so, I’d search through craigslist for any new listings.  I found a few that seemed promising but again never exactly what I was looking for.   Most were too far to travel to go check out.  Some the cabinets were just too much work to refinish.  Others would have been too difficult or impossible to modify to fit the 15-91 as the mounting hinges needed to be 9 5/8” on center.

Then yesterday, I came across an ad for a local yard sale.   An antique sewing machine was listed.   I called the number listed and was told that it was an old Singer.  She said it had a beautiful cabinet that had to be seen to be appreciated and then she told me the asking price… $225.    Disappointed once again, I thanked her but told her that was way out of my price range.

Then Dave and I got talking things over and decided we’d head over close to the end of the yard sale and see if it was still there and whether she’d brought the price down at all.

The lady was right, the cabinet is beautiful though not in quite as pristine a condition as she claimed when I called.  But in contrast to last night, at 2 pm today the price was $100 less.  Then her husband said to Dave, “We’ll take $120 for it.”

SOLD!

The cabinet is solid wood with what we think is either a walnut or mahogany veneer.  All four drawers are solid wood, as well.

The left hand drawer (according to subsequent research) has an ink well and pencil/pen tray as Singer had intended that it could used as both a desk and sewing table.  The three drawers on the right are all nice deep drawers that will hold all the attachments that came with my 15-91 plus loads of other sewing notions.

Dave thinks it should only require sanding to smooth out several minor scratches and then a fresh coat of polyurethane.

I’ll recover the seat of the stool after Dave has refinished it, as well.

The sewing machine is a Singer 201 that according to the Serial # was made in Elizabeth, New Jersey around 1938.

We’ll be removing this Singer and replacing it with my 15-91.  The 201 will likely get a good cleaning and then be sold either on craigslist or ebay.

Note:  If you have an old Singer that you’d like to know more about, the Singer website has a list of Machine Serial Numbers to help you identify what year and where your Singer was manufactured.

WIP Wednesday and FNSI Reminder

Today I’m working on sewing the quilt back for this scrappy nine patch quilt top:

A larger photo of the quilt top can be seen here.

I’m using a thrifted white cotton sheet for the back but it wasn’t quite long enough so I added a row of blocks made from the leftovers fabrics from the front.

When I was pressing the sheet to get it ready to use, I noticed one small area of discolouration and a couple of little stains that look like marker stains so decided to conceal them with some appliquéd hearts.

I’ve got one heart done, two more basted and ready to appliqué.   The back is going to need another good pressing once I get them sewn down.

And now I’m actually glad there were those little flaws that needed to be creatively covered up, because I really like what those three simple hearts are adding to the back.

Once I’m finished with this quilt back, I’ve got one more to make for my Disappearing Nine Patch quilt  top and then it’s on to cutting batting to fit.    Then  I’ll have 5 quilts ready to be hand-basted.  Almost perfect timing for FNSI  this Friday, May 20.   Though I may also spend that evening getting acquainted with the vintage Singer 15-91 that I won on an ebay auction on Mother’s Day.

If you haven’t done so already, you can still sign up for this month’s Friday Night Sew In over at Handmade by Heidi.  Just click on the FNSI button below.

This post has been added to WIP Wednesday #27 over at Freshly Pieced.

Christmas on a Budget Series – Gifts for Less than $2 Each

That is not a typo in the title.  You really can make Christmas gifts for less than $2 per gift.  In some cases, for free except for the time and love you put into making them.

As I mentioned in my first post in this series while our children are attending university/college, their big Christmas gift each year is their flight home.  But we still like to have small gifts under the tree for them to open on Christmas morning, so I’ve had to get creative to keep those gifts within our budget.

Here’s an example of one such gift I’ve made:

Our oldest daughter struggles with allergies and when they get bad her nose can get really sore from using tissues.  So one year, I made her a set of hankies from part of a thrifted white cotton sheet.

The great thing about using thrift sheets to make hankies is that the sheets have been washed so many times that they are super soft.  I can usually buy these white sheets for $2 each for a twin sized flat sheet which would yield twenty-four 15” square hankies (cut 16X16 then hemmed).

If you wanted to give sets of six hankies, as I did, you would end up with 4 gifts from one twin sheet; which makes the cost of each gift 50 cents.   Or free, if you happen to have an old flat sheet from a set where the fitted sheet has worn out.

She’s not a frilly type of girl, so I chose to keep her hankies plain, but you could easily buy vintage thrifted sheets in different colours and patterns.  Or try adding some embellishments to take this gift up a notch; making it suitable for gift giving to even the most difficult on your list.

If your machine has decorative stitches you could add a line or two of those.  Or if you like to embroider, you could add the recipient’s initial.

In addition, by increasing the size to 16” or 18” square, you’d have the perfect size for cloth napkins.

With many people making the switch from paper to cloth… hankies and cloth napkins are great eco-friendly gifts.  And if you make your own, they’re wallet friendly too.

And speaking of wallets, these tea wallets were made from scraps of fabric left over from making my scrappy nine patch quilt top.   I used this tutorial.  Since the scraps were in my stash and the tea packages came from my pantry, these were free to make and give.

Need your gift to be a bit more substantial?  Add a mug from the Dollar Store and a drawstring bag big enough to hold the mug and you’ve got a gift your recipient can slip into their purse or briefcase and can take to work each day to use at break time.  Depending on the fabric you choose the gift could be tailored to suit either a man or a woman.

For the young children on your list, puppets are a great imaginative play toy.   And they can be super inexpensive to make from squares of crafting felt.   I made the ones pictured above for less than $1 each.   My original post about these puppets can be found here,  along with photos of the puppet theatre I made from an old set of curtains to go with them.

If I was making puppets for a gift this year, I could have a lot of fun making this set of Old MacDonald and his farm animal puppets from the blog Just Another Day in Paradise.

More gifts for less than $2 each can be found in my archives or by clicking on these links:

Every Household Should Have a Button Box

Make it Monday – How to Make a Rice Hot/Cold Therapy Bag

Bean Soup in a Jar Mix

I hope you’ll continue to join me on the 25th of each month as I have lots more ideas to share to create Christmas on a Budget.

You can read the previous posts in the series here and here.

What To Do With an Old Doll Cradle

Just after we moved to Northwest Georgia, I came across a handmade doll cradle at a garage sale.  At the time, I had intended to sand it down, paint it white and do a tole painting of a teddy bear on the ends.   The plan was to use the cradle to display my childhood teddy bear and two of my old dolls.

Well… that was the plan.  But now that our children have all left home, Dave and I are thinking that with our next move, we might downsize to a smaller house and I’m looking around at the things we’ve accumulated over the years and deciding what must stay and what things we really wouldn’t have room for with less square footage.  I decided that the cradle (which I never got around to painting or displaying) was one of the things that could go.

So Dave sanded it down, put a few coats of polyurethane on it and glued some felt in the bottom.

Then I got busy and made a mattress, pillow and doll quilt for it from the flannel leftover from the baby/toddler quilt I made for Dave’s granddaughter.

Doll cradle with handmade mattress and pillow

With doll quilt added

Another view of cradle and doll quilt

Dave’s grandchildren live thousands of miles away.  Shipping the cradle would have been prohibitively expensive so instead we listed it on freecycle earlier this week.  After it was picked up, I got an e-mail from the young woman we gave it to.  The e-mail said that her little girl was so excited she couldn’t wait for her to get the cradle out of the car and had been playing with it ever since.

Now that’s a much better use for that doll cradle than sitting in our living room filled with my old toys!

How to Make a Seamstress Very Happy

For the past week and a half, I’ve had to move my sewing machine back to the dining room table while my husband worked on refinishing and modifying a vintage sewing machine cabinet that I picked up at a local thrift store a few years ago.  It is solid wood with a cherry veneer and was a bargain at $30.

He’d gotten it all sanded down soon after I bought it but then with working away from home so much never had the chance to do the necessary modifications and finishing to turn it into a cabinet that would fit my sewing machine.  During that time, I sewed with my machine sitting on top of the closed unfinished cabinet.  But that is now a thing of the past.

Last week when the weather warmed up enough for him to work in the garage, he installed the Regal/Horn airlift mechanism, modified the cabinet so that my sewing machine would move smoothly from storage to flatbed to free arm positions and then began applying several coats of clear satin polyurethane.   That took longer than expected because the weather turned colder causing it to take much longer for each coat of polyurethane to dry and cure.

But he did the final sanding and polishing this morning and moved it back into the house.

Isn’t she a beauty…

My refinished vintage sewing cabinet with the top closed.

Front view of the sewing cabinet.

Top view with the lid open.

All ready to sew with the sewing machine in the flatbed position.

Moved to the free arm position.

And he finished just in time for me to sew up a little something for a giveaway that I’ll be announcing tomorrow.

Quick Inexpensive Easter Gifts

Just before Christmas 08, I came across a box of miscellaneous Easter decorations at our local thrift store.  You’d think that Easter would have been the last thing on my mind, but one thing I’ve learned over the years is to think ahead.

Our children are long past eagerly waiting for Easter Bunny, but I still like to give them a little something each year. Right away an idea came to mind how I could turn that box of decorations into some special gifts in a few months time.  And since the decorations were off season, when I got to the till, they only charged me $2 for everything pictured below.

I hid the box away until a few weeks ago when I dug it out and started getting creative.

To 6 egg cartons that I’d been saving for just this purpose, I glued Easter themed paper.

(I’d had looked all over the place for Easter wrapping paper but ended up cutting up paper goodie bags that were packaged 10 for $1.)

Then I divided up the decorations amongst three of the cartons.  The other three cartons were filled with the usual plastic eggs filled with candy.

The cartons for our oldest, I wrapped in an Easter themed table runner.  The ones for our middle daughter…  in an Easter tea towel.    You’ll notice a second tea towel wrapped package.  That’s an extra little something for middle daughter.  Oldest daughter’s extra something was wrapped along with her egg cartons.

The other two cartons are again hidden away in the closet to await being put out early Sunday morning as a surprize for our teenage son along with the usual collection of Easter candy.  Someday he’ll be able to use them in his own home.

Note:  I can post this now because our daughters have each received their package and I encouraged them to open them so that they would have them to use for Easter.   Though I did tell them that they couldn’t open the plastic eggs until Easter morning.  :o)

This post was added as part of Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.