Sew It!

My grandmother owned an electric sewing machine, and she used to make our everyday-house clothes with it. She even repaired clothes that get torn. She also knew how to make new things from old clothes. Like if you don't like your jeans anymore, she can make it into shorts. Old bedsheets can be turned into pillow cases. She had a lot of projects with that sewing machine. We probably saved more than Php 5000 a year because of it.

I was young then, house-hold chores were far from my interests... So I never asked her to teach me how to do those projects.

Until My S and I started our own family... And I started taking interest on these type of projects.

Sadly, she has passed away, leaving me with an electric sewing machine that I have the slightest idea on how to use... (God Bless Her Soul)...

But, as our generation of internet-savvy individuals, information on these kind of things are just a click away!

So I began researching on how to use the old machine, started some really simple projects with it, damaged a lot of old clothes due to trial and error, and alas! I finally learned my way through on how to sew!

Well, not as an expert like my grandmother, but at least I can use it to save money...

Here are some projects to try:

1. Make everyday-house clothes. If you chance upon a fabric shop that sells soft and light fabrics for a low cost, buy a couple of yards and turn them into sleeveless shirts and shorts. What I do is I take one of our existing clothes and use it as a pattern (you can also google some patterns and print them out). Your first few tries may be fashion disasters (I know, 'cause mine were!), but that's okay, you'll learn through experience.

2. Make pillow-cases from old bedsheets. When my boys were still babies, I was handed-down with A LOT of baby blankets. Now that they're toddlers, I really don't have any use for them anymore. So I tried to turn a couple of them into pillow-cases. Since they're already used, they're really soft and nice to use. Now, all of those blankets have been re-created into pillow-cases! If you have bedsheets that you're ready to throw out, try making them into pillow-cases, just use an old pillow-case as your pattern.

3. Repair torn clothes. We sometimes get our clothes torn in the most unimaginable places. Some people throw them out or use them as rags if this happens. But why not just repair it? You'll save on buying new clothes to replace the torn ones! This may take some skill so that it won't look "repaired". But as I've said, information is just a click away!

4. Make curtains. I haven't been successful with this one yet. But I am learning by using old bedsheets as experiments. My teacher for this project is ehow.com. We all know that the tag prices on curtains are sky-high if you want the good-looking ones! So why not learn how to make it, right? You'll get exactly what you want, the right shade and ruffles and size, plus, you'll save money on the way!

5. Make something new from something old. Have some old jeans that you don't like anymore? Or probably some old t-shirts that are kept at the back of your closets? Why not turn them into something new and useful? I've turned My S' old jeans into walking shorts and they look like store-bought! He also had a lot of t-shirts that he didn't want anymore, so I turned them into my everyday-house clothes and into pillow-cases.

In estimate, we have saved almost Php 3000 last year by making use of my grandmother's old sewing machine.

If you don't have a sewing machine to use, you can always do manual-sewing, but that can be hard to do if your gonna make some curtains or turn jeans into walking shorts. But for all of the other examples above, you can do them even without a sewing machine.

The possibilities of saving money by sewing can be endless!