The Personal Touch

What kind of holiday shopper are you?  Do you shop ahead, finding bargains or “perfect gifts” throughout the year?  Or, do you wait until the twelfth hour, joining the pressing crowds, revelling in last minute deals or the challenges of competitive shopping.  I used to be a member of the latter camp but found, after stressing our December finances beyond tolerance, that the former method was more easily managed…both by our budget and my nerves.  As years went by, I also realized that some gift-giving options wouldn’t have been available when shopping last minute.  By shopping ahead, I could make points redemption from certain online merchants to ensure gifts, shipped directly to recipients, arrived in time and wrapped.  In leaner years, to spare our budget, early preparation enabled us to gift in more creative ways, yet still impart our love and care.

Gifts from the kitchen proved popular.  Soup mixes – varying mixtures of beans, grains and spice blends with ingredient list and instruction labels – are a great way to bring warmth to someone’s winter day.  You’ll save even more money on each jar if you’ve been bulking up.  Hot-buttered rum mix is another popular gift from the kitchen though, requiring refrigeration, it either needs specialized shipping or personal delivery.  Hot drink mixes hold up better if your shipping gifts.  A batch of home-made noodles, dried and packaged in an air-tight container, makes a fabulous gift for the pasta (and soup) lovers on your list.  This might not ship well, either, as the home-made noodles tend to break easier than store-bought varieties.  Some home-made truffles ship well and are delicious at any time of year.  Candies and brittles are another sweet yet thrifty treat most people enjoy.  In years past, I’ve also prepared traditional holiday foods – old-world recipes mostly producing copious quantities – and distributed these familiar treats to family members who also love those recipes but don’t make them because of the volume results. It was a great way of sharing traditional meals when we couldn’t actually get together.

PJ's for the Grandkids

Well-crafted, home-made items are not only a thoughtful way of gifting, you can  make for high-quality items for much less cost, particularly if you buy on sale or from “remnant” bunks.  When I was a child, my mother made new pajamas  for my sister and I, each Christmas -- that “soft gift” under the tree always confirmed the eagerly anticipated plush flannel nighties.  A few years ago, I did the same thing for my grand-children and those gifts were apparently worn thin, too.  Home-made personal products (creams, body scrubs, lip balms, etc.,) make nice gifts, particularly if prettily packaged.  It’s a good idea to include an ingredient label for recipients so allergic reactions can be avoided. Home decor objects like curtains, pillow covers, calendar hangers, or a set of matching napkins and placemats are quick and easy projects with a sewing machine, some rudimentary skill, and careful fabric choices.  The sense of smell is most commonly linked to memory, so to be long-remembered, craft some closet or drawer freshener sachets.  It can be hard to find something unique and special for unique gifts for the elderly or infirm.  Sometimes being of service means the most to them; they may need something heavy moved or a difficult household chore done.  Or, plan a special meal  as treat for a shut-in.

Don’t forget cards and packaging.  If gifting  cash or retail gift cards a home-made card with heartfelt sentiment can personalize the gift and reduce shipping costs to a minimum.  Attractive packaging and containers add a long-lasting element to gifts of all sorts. You can embellish common containers for reinforcement or to provide a dark environment for light-sensitive foods or creams.

Whether or not the budget is tight, or time is a crunch, there’s distinct joy in cooking, baking or crafting gifts; a greater sense of connection to the people for whom I’m tailoring the gift.  It needn’t be costly to share one’s love:  a box of goodies from the kitchen, a simple pomander tied with ribbon, or some time spent cleaning Great-grandmother’s ceiling fan.  Personalized care is always gladly received.

Curtains for Me!

Few things go according to plan and this spring has been no exception. First, I threw out my hip while refinishing the hardwood floors – the floors look great but I lost more than a week imitating a pretzel. Then, when spring-cleaning finally neared completion, plans to do yard work took shape. That's when the rain began – no deluges; just enough to prevent mowing and soil-cultivation. Undeterred, we thought to go in search of wild asparagus. No luck. The unusually late spring discouraged early sprouting of local forage plants. Okay...now what? Timing seemed perfect for a project I'd planned "when time allows." We'd bought the materials a couple months ago, while a fantastic business-relocation sale was going on so, lately, it's been curtains for me!

It may seem like needless work to some, but there are several benefits to sewing these elements of home decor. First, we've realized tremendous savings without compromising quality. Actually, achieving better quality. We waited for a fabric sale – it was pure luck we found prices marked down even further to facilitate easier relocation. For the paltry sum of $131 (Canadian dollars, including taxes) we got beautiful drapery and sheer fabrics to dress the kitchen, living room and master bedroom windows, including a black-out liner for the latter window. Browsing catalogues, you'll be hard-pressed to find drapery and sheers to cover one small window for that cost. If found, cheap fabrics and poor stitching are usual reasons for such an extraordinary bargain.

Among the other benefits of sewing curtains are variety, fit, and home coordination. We live in a rented home, so any decorating is limited by the landlord's chosen colours and home design. Many of the patterns and colours of pre-made draperies did not coordinate our current setting with our furniture. However, when shopping for fabrics, we found colours, designs and textures that weren't represented in the home decor stores we'd shopped at. It was that variety of hues and textures which enabled us harmonize our furniture with these retro-coloured walls. Also, in buying fabric, I can fit curtains and sheers to these odd-sized windows better than the standard pre-fabrication measurements. Individuality is another advantage of sewing curtains. Even if neighbours, friends or family were to buy the exact same fabric, their curtains likely wouldn't appear in the same format – size, shape or design – as the curtains I've sewn. Our new curtains are unique.


In choosing particular fabrics, we also made conscious decisions to control your home heating and cooling. Some designers advise "summer-izing" the home by swapping heavy draperies for lighter, airier panels or blinds, to allow more light in. But sunlight is heat and, in recent years, we've attempted to limit use of the air-conditioner to exceptionally hot days only – respecting both our pocketbook and the environment. Simply by opening and closing curtains and windows, syncing them with the sun's daily progress to allow in cool air, and block out as much direct sun and its ambient heat as possible, we've saved significantly on electrical costs. Heavier curtains are effective year-round – providing sun-blocking in summer and draft-protection in winter.

New Kitchen Curtains

This spring may not have gone as planned, but sewing is, for me, a very enjoyable, almost Zen, activity. It'll still be curtains for me for a while longer, but I love the creative activity and satisfying results. That pleasure only increases knowing that with each garment and drape it produces, the sewing machine we bought several years ago gets progressively less expensive. And this current project won't just save us money – through sale prices, fabric choices, and depreciating machine-cost – the results will be fitted dressings of unique design and harmonizing quality, which will help us maintain our favoured home environment.

So…♪♪  I sew, I sew, it's off to create, I sew... ♪♪

Sew Much To Do!

For everything there is a season. For some, fall is football season. For hubby, it's hunting. For me, this is sewing season. Actually, I sew three seasons of the year but must (reluctantly) set it aside during the extreme heat of summer. So, as temperatures begin dropping and leaves turn golden, sewing fever grabs hold.

I didn't begin sewing for its economy, though. It was the poor fit of most store-bought attire that prompted my interest. With body proportions that vary from "regular" I was often frustrated when clothes shopping. If a blouse fit through the chest, the arms were several inches too long and the shoulders drooped. If arm-length and shoulders fit, then chest buttons could take out an eye at thirty paces. It was similar with slacks. If the rise fit, the legs were voluminous and inches too long. If the leg fit, then the pants rise went only to my hip and no amount of tummy sucking will see those zippers closed. The aggravation was so great that I began to avoid clothes shopping altogether. Tailoring was an option, I realize, but our budget just didn't have the wiggle-room for the added expense on top of the clothing purchases. Forget couture!

Then, a few years ago, tired of being pinched or bound by ill-fitting clothes, I decided to learn sewing. I knew the first projects would likely not be the best quality, but I was prepared to suffer a little ugly to have clothes that actually fit. What a concept! I was right, too. Those first few projects had their problems. But, I had begun with "home clothes" like sleep and casual wear, so nobody (other than family) would see those mistakes which, hubby assures, weren't bad at all. With each project, my knowledge and skill grew. Interpreting pattern directions can still be confusing, but most of the techniques and production steps have become routine. For the occasional conundrum, I reference a handy sewing book, inherited from my mother, and that usually helps decipher even the most convoluted pattern directions. When all else fails, I have my go-to people (Mom and my BFF) who have, combined, literally decades of sewing experience between them.

The unsought "bonus" was thrift.

Even using the more luxurious fabrics, I can make garments less expensive than similar store-bought clothes. FAR less expensive. Of course, there are patterns and notions (thread, elastic, lace, etc.) to be accounted for however those items are usually used for more than one project so their nominal costs are defrayed by that number. I've extended the life of one oft-used pattern by tracing it on tissue paper before it disintegrated. I've also created "adjusted" pattern pieces (to better fit my body proportions) in a similar fashion.

But, the cost-saving doesn't end with the production of the garment. The night wear I made first, over three years ago, is still in use. No seams have opened. The material isn't threadbare. A few buttons are just now becoming loose, but that's an easy fix. I've come to realize that store-bought clothing is not exempt from the marketing evils of planned obsolescence. What else can explain the tripling (at least) of these garments' lifespan?

I had someone tell me they prefer to wear the latest fashions. That's never been a priority for me, but I can understand the desire. Sewing doesn't preclude this fashion choice, though. Each season, I see new patterns reflecting the latest styles added to the collections of all the major pattern-makers (Simplicity, Butterick, and Vogue, to name a few of my usual choices.) Also, if you're like me and have difficulty finding store-bought clothing that fits well, you might find it tough to part with the few clothes which do. These personal gems, when they reach their end-of-days can be "exploded" (carefully taken apart with a seam-ripper) and the pieces used to create your own pattern.

Creating couture-quality clothing is something I aspire to, but it takes time, patience and practice to achieve that goal. If you're interested in sewing, I've got a few simple hints to share, lessons hard-learned that don't appear in pattern instructions or most sewing books. Here are a few of those suggestions:

• Prior to any project, oil, if necessary, your sewing machine and then clean the machine and the sewing area thoroughly.
  
• Before cutting or sewing anything, read the instructions through to ensure you have all the necessary fabrics, notions and understanding to complete the project.
  
• Pencil-mark the relevant steps to the particular version of the pattern you've chosen to make – this will help you avoid following any alternate instructions erroneously. (Yes, I learned this the hard way.)
  
• Prepare a bobbin with more than enough thread to ensure it won't run out mid-seam.
  
• When cutting fabric I've discovered it's easier (being right-handed) to cut in a clockwise direction. This keeps my scissor blade better aligned with the pattern edge without causing as much a gap between pattern and fabric. I assume the opposite direction may be best for left-handed cutters.
  
• Cut with long, even slices. Short cuts tend to create a more jagged fabric edge.
  
• Where there may be confusion later, mark the "front" (or the "good") side of fabric with a basted stitch of contrasting thread which can be easily removed later.
  
• Pin frequently and closely: to avoid pattern-gapping during the fabric-cutting process – serious problems can result from a poorly cut fabric; and, to avoid sewing problems like puckering or seam allowance folding.
  
• Iron frequently. Coupled with pinning, this helps keep fabrics from creasing which can also create bunching or unwanted folds in seam lines.
  
• Using small remnants of the fabric(s) you are sewing, fold as necessary to represent the layers you will be sewing, and use these to accurately establish the perfect tension on your machine. Reset the tension whenever the layering changes. Make a note of each of these settings so you can quickly reset the tension as required.
  
• When threading elastic, make sure to "anchor" the hind-end with another safety pin to prevent it from slipping inside the opening before you're able to join the ends.
  
• And, perhaps the hardest lesson: When in doubt, rip it out! On my second project – sewing some pyjamas for my grandchild – I made an error very early in the project. I hesitated, feeling something was amiss, but, rushed by a Christmas deadline, I hurried on. Later, I came to regret that decision when I discovered the problem and had to seam-rip the entire project back to that point. Ugh! Not fun. And, a royal waste of precious time!
  

Top left: ironed fabric; Middle left: pattern lay-out; Bottom left: first stitches;
Top right: pressing seams; Middle right: attach lining; Bottom right: elastic ready for threading;
Centre: hang for 24 hours before hemming.

Certainly there is a time-cost to sewing. Not all projects need be overly time-consuming, however. The skirt I've featured in the photo collage was produced in approximately three hours. (The pattern had already been cut for a previous project.) I must admit, though, that time spent sewing doesn't feel like a "cost" to me. Craft work is fun and this one offers me immense gratification with tangible, practical, and functional results. Happily, too, the clothes have been longer lasting and better fitting than what I'm able to find in most retail shops.

As this blog goes to post, my new skirt has hung for 24 hours and is now ready for hemming. Then, it's on to the next project: another new blouse. I'll be in the sewing room, if anyone needs me...