1 $.79 Sweater = 2 Great Hats!

I'll start off by saying that I made 2 because I did not photograph the steps to the first hat. I love this hat! I got the idea from Disney's post at 30 Days, on making a Cardigan hat. Disney runs one of my favorite blogs- Ruffles and Stuff. She has so many cute ideas! I only hope I'm half as good as she is some day. ;)

Since I did change the hat up a bit, I'll post a tutorial as well, but again, the idea came from Disney! I found my sweater at Goodwill for just $.79, and I was able to make 2 hats out of 1 sweater, with enough fabric on the sleeves for 1 scarf. At that price, each finished piece cost me just about $.27 to make. Can't beat that at the store! If you have an old sweater on hand, you can make this project for free!

Sweater Hat

You'll Need:

1 Old Sweater, adult sized SM or larger for kids, and L or larger for adults.
Scissors
Sewing Machine

1. First, you'll want to cut the sweater apart. To start off, you need a circle, so make sure the sweater is bigger in size. The bigger the circle, the baggier the hat. I used a dinner plate to measure my circle, but in cutting it, I made the circle larger by about an inch around. I used a rotary cutter to cut through it, and stuck my cutting mat in between the layers of the sweater, so only the top was cut.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cut the bottom ribbing off the sweater. In the sweater I used, it had an extra long ribbing, which came in handy.
   
   
3. The circumference of your sweater circle will be longer than the ribbing, as an aside. In Disney's tutorial, she first sewed the circle with a straight stitch, then pulled the top thread to gather the material. My first try at that was a big fail.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Pin the bottom side of the hat to the ribbing, creating gathers as you pin. This is how I added gather to the hat, without being able to use the thread to create an instant gather. You may have to pin and re-pin a time or two to insure that you have the right size gather to fit the ribbing.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Leave the loose ends of the ribbing unpined. Once the hat is pinned, sew the two loose ends of ribbing together, then pin 1 last gather to the ribbing.
   
   
6. Sew along the gather, going nice and slow, and removing pins as you go- I noticed that some got hidden under the pleats created, and were harder to find at that point.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. If you are like me, you'll be in love with the hat once the first 6 steps are finished, and immediatly try it on. Now- if you had extra long ribbing, like I did, you'll note at this point that the hat resembles an odd, knit chef hat, and will create a weird mushroom above your head. It is not a flattering look. At this point, you'll pout a bit, and wonder where you went wrong. Or, since I have already done that for you, you can move on to step 8. Keep in mind, if you have ribbing that is only about 2 inches long, you can stop here, and enjoy your hat! If not, move on to step 8!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. To conquer the prior noted problem, I folded the ribbing inward, and looked at the hat inside out. The seam should have some allowance for adding another stitch to it. I did not pin it the second time around, I just went slow, and matched the ribbing seam with the inner seam, and stitched it on top.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Fold the hat right side out, and you'll have a cute little, puffy beret type hat for winter!
   
   
10. Embellish as you like! On one hat, I added a little 4-loop bow, with a big button in the middle.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

This was a fairly easy hat, though some knowledge of sewing and pinning is required. Or, trial and error, if you are a fast learner. Rather than attack my own sweater collection, I have been hitting up thrift shops for materials to use all week. The children's set I made earlier this week was nice, but I much prefer my brightly colored set.

Family Gift Idea: Game Night

My friend Sarah over at Sarah's Deals posted a pretty slick deal yesterday. This is primarily good for the younger kids, but it's a great gift idea, especially those that buy for a lot of kids!

Toys R Us is having a Hasbro game sale right now, with several preschool games marked only $3.99. When you buy $25 worth of Hasbro games, you get a $10 gift card back. In addition, you can get a $2/game rebate (limit 1 per game title- so you can't buy 3 of the same game title, and get $6, you'd only get $2) back in refund from Hasbro.

The gift card activates 6 hours after making the deal (presumably so you have to come back to the store a second time). That frees you up $10 to buy another gift at TRU.

The math would require the purchase of 7 games at $3.99 to hit the $25 mark. Once you did, you would get $10 off your next purchase, and then a rebate of $14 back, making your total purchase only around $4 for 7 games. That's pretty much buy 1 get 6 free!

There are also some $7.99 & $9.99 games listed, which means buying less to hit the $25 mark, but saving less, as well, since the rebate would go down. To buy the fewest, at the cheapest price, you would want to buy 2 of the $7.99 games, and 1 of the $9.99 games to equal $25.97. You would get a $10 gift card back, and a $6 rebate, making it just shy of $10 for 3 games.

The more expensive games are geared at older kids- Clue, Boggle, Scrabble, Mouse Trap, Yahtzee, etc.

Thanks for the great deal, Sarah, and good luck shoppers!

Goodwill Day!

I haven't been feeling great lately, so I haven't taken the time to stop in at Goodwill since last week. Many of you know that I have a fantastic, cheap Goodwill in town. Actually, there are 2 Goodwill's, and they share a building. In side 1, you have the "AS-IS" center, which sells items that don't sell in the regular Goodwill after however long. The AS-IS center gets cast off's from 12-15 area Goodwill shops, and is quite the little treasure trove.

The prices are dirt cheap- the highest price anything in the store, be it Prom gowns, Fur Jackets, Furniture, or Electronics, is over the price of $3.49. The store uses a sliding scale to price objects- if it's clothing, and it was originally $1.99 or less, it's only $.29. Housewares marked $.99 or under are also $.29.

Tonight I stopped in for just a quick stop. I didn't spend time digging through clothing at all, as it is laid out on long tables with a small edge. You really have to dig to find things. They are at least (usually) sorted by who & what. For instance, all women's tops are together, all men's pants, all the kids clothing, etc.

The entire store is lined with shelves on the walls, which hold houseware items, books, shoes, music, and movies. Toys are put in tubs on the ground under the shelves. I walked the perimeter once, then again a second time. Today, I was looking for items I could use for future (unknown) craft projects.

I found some great glassware. I hate plastic serving dishes, they are cheap, don't last, and look horrible. It's hard to find affordable, quality glassware, though. This Goodwill is a great place to find vintage glassware.

Today, I found a nice large round divided tray, with 2 larger compartments, and 2 smaller ones. My grandma always had a smaller trey like this sitting out with cheese chunks, olives, and crackers for Holiday dinners. I think this will be a great dish for when we go places for the holidays.

I also found an assortment of long stemed, wide goblets that will work fantastic for dessert cups during the holidays, as well. 2 are the same, but the rest are all different. I love them all, they're fantastic, with ridges, and shaped cups.

Lastly, I found a box with Christmas ornaments- the glass bulb style. There were two with golden touches, but the rest were bright colored bulbs covered in gobs of ugly lace and ribbon. I figured I could probably take that off, and the whole box was only $.29. In it, there were 9 total ornaments. Unfortunately, 1 was broken (I found this later), and the ugly ones were not salvageable, as the bulbs were scuffed and scraped, and the lace was super glued on. But, I did get the two golden balls, as well as a one with beads on it.

When I was done at the As Is center of Goodwill, I went next door to the regular Goodwill to look around. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was a 3 or 4 foot tall shimmering, shining metallic silver Christmas tree, with fiber optic lights. Oh, how fabulous!

I've been wanting a silver tree for a few years now, and ALMOST bought one a few years ago, but went with a white tree instead, to be "safer". I had decided at the time that I might not enjoy a silver tree as much in a few years, so it was probably a good move at the time.

But, there was a nice miniature silver tree, just sitting there, all pretty and sweet! It was lit up, so I know the fiber optics work, and it was $10. Ouch. A bit steep, but I knew without a doubt that the tree would not last another full day. It was just too fabulous to last!

So, after a bit of debate, I put it in the cart.

I found a 6 pack of matte finished navy blue ornaments for $.59, and a bag with 5 of the same matte finished ornaments in burgundy next to it, for $.99. Last Spring, I bought 2 metallic paint markers, a silver one and a gold one. I plan to write names & the year on them for gifts. I may also get some pretty matching ribbon to tie a small bow to the top of each one with. The blue looks black, but they have a nice rich navy color to them. The spots are mostly dust.

Lastly, I found a brand new red felt, scalloped edge Christmas tree skirt. It's plain, but it was only $2.99, which is cheaper than the cheapest ones at the store. I thought about appliqueing it with felt, maybe a Snowman design, or something, and figured it was a good deal either way.

After I left Goodwill, I had to stop at Dollar Tree real quick for some needles, and when I walked in, I detoured to the Christmas section. I found a pair of large felt Christmas Tree shapes in white & green. I looked at them for a moment, and decided that was exactly what my little red tree skirt needs. I bought 3 2-packs, so I'll trim the skirt symmetrically with green & white trees. I also might sew some individual sequins around the skirt, or on the trees.

Not a bad deal for a $6 tree skirt. I eventually would love to make my own tree skirt, but I hesitate to try, because I'm scared it won't come out good. I am passable on the sewing machine but can't follow patterns at ALL.

All in all, I had a good day at Goodwill, and got the prettiest little silver tree. I'm excited with my find!

The Gift of Time

Last year, I was active on a website that is sort of a mix between a blog, a forum, and a social network, called Gather. Actually, I'm still active there. Last year, people were concerned about Christmas. Many people were laid off, or hours were cut, and a lot of people around the nation found themselves worrying about how to deal with the costs of the upcoming holidays.

This is a post I made last November on Gather, which I still feel is a great gift to give, The Gift of Time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This year, many people have lost their jobs. Many have had to take cut backs in income. Even those who haven't are feeling a pinch with the raising costs of living, and the failure to accommodate the income accordingly- though, it goes hand in hand with the economic crisis. In a few years, maybe we can all look back on these lean times, and smile that we got through it, and learned to be a bit more resourceful and frugal at the same time.

But that's the future, and this is the here and now. In the hear and now, many people are struggling on how they will survive Christmas as frugally as possible. More and more people are looking to cut back their list of gifts, by excluding people, participating in gift drawings instead of all out exchanges, and many other solutions.

The list of people signing up for help is outstripping the prior years by a lot. More and more people are in need of assistance, and because of the longer lists, and less people being able to donate, people won't get nearly as much help as in years past.

Being creative is something not everyone is familiar with. Working online is helpful- very helpful when you can earn even 1 or 2 gift cards from Gather or other places, but it still takes more than that.

One of the most frugal, but most appreciated ways to provide a holiday gift this year is by simply giving of yourself- give the gift of time.

Here are a few ideas on things you can give through the simple gift of your time-

• Parents: Offer to babysit for friends or family with young children. Two or three hours of babysitting can easily run parents $20-30 these days. That's daunting enough to make a simple trip to the theater not doable. Or even just to let them go to the grocery store together without the kids.
• The Elderly or Sick: Offer to help transport back and forth between doctor's appointments. Sometimes, they don't have transport themselves, or don't want to drive in bad weather, and those appointments can be very important.
• Anyone: Offer to spend an evening or afternoon cleaning their house up- maybe limit it by rooms or hours.
• Anyone: A get together with a friend or family member- a night of playing cards together, or watching a rented movie, or taking the kids to play, etc.
• Anyone: Offer to make dinner for someone
• College kids, or people living on their own: Offer to send them a small baked goods care package when they want it
• Dog Owners: Offer to walk their dog for a week, if they live nearby
• Pet Owners: Offer to pet sit for a week- going over and feeding, watering, and letting dogs out, or cleaning litter boxes, etc.
• Anyone: A shoulder to cry on- offer an over worked parent, or a stressed friend a quite night and a shoulder to cry on when they need one.
• Women: An at home 'spa'. Bring buckets for warm water to soak your feet in, nail polish, soft music (or upbeat if you like!), a cucumber, and some scented candles. Relax together, paint your nails together, and giggle and talk.
• Anyone: A car wash when it's nice out
• Anyone with a yard: A lawn mowing when it's nice out
• A Teen: A ride to the mall to meet up with their friends, or a ride to the movie theater.
• Your Child: A free day off from chores
• Your Child: An afternoon of 1 on 1 time

The possibilities are endless- there are so many wonderful things you can do just by providing your time. And to a lot of people, your time is worth far more than a gift card, or a trinket, or a new sweater. It's priceless to the over worked, or lonely, or sick.

Sure, there are people who won't appreciate it, but those are the people who are far too materialistic for their own good.

I hope in reposting this, it will give some of you out there an idea. I think time spent with someone is far better than money spent. The memories can last a life time.