Budget Saver Tip #36: Sew Your Own Stuff

I've been wanting curtains for a long time for one of the rooms in our basement, to tie in the room's colors and to beautify the space.  In a couple years of perusing through my town's limited selection of pre-made curtains, I didn't find anything that remotely fit the bill. So a little while ago I decided I would have to make my own curtains, which might save money anyway. We don't have a good fabric store in my rural town (yet), so I did an internet search for the theme and colors I was looking for--but that search was fruitless too. Then I found out my mom actually had just the fabric I wanted! She had nothing planned for it, so she gave it to me and I excitedly got busy on my first real sewing project in five years. (My sewing machine was out of commission all that time and I recently had it tuned up.)

A week later, this is what I ended up with:

And here's a closeup of the cute cabin-themed fabric:

While sewing your own clothes, draperies, etc, is no longer always the cheapest option, sometimes it still is. For example, when you can get the fabric for free (say, from Freecycle) or deeply discounted (such as at yard sales). And if you want something very specific, as in my case, sewing your own stuff can also bring much greater satisfaction because you don't have to settle for something less than what you imagined. What you make yourself can also be of better quality, as so many items you see at the store these days are made from inferior fabrics.

Not to mention, there's a certain pleasure in doing the project yourself, and a feeling of accomplishment when it turns out well. As far as self-sufficiency goes, knowing even the basics of sewing definitely brings peace of mind.

Garden in a Glance, III

This was my first year to grow Cosmos--and really, my first year to seriously grow flowers. I have been delighted by these cuties, as well as by how low maintenance they are. They don't require a lot of water, do better without fertilizer, and love the heat. And if I leave them to go to seed at the end of the season, they should come back next year on their own!

They started out like this:

And now they look like this:

 

My two flower gardens don't provide us food to eat, so they don't directly enhance our self-sufficiency, but there is something to be said for increasing the beauty in your world...

SFG

I think because of the surprisingly mild winter we've had this year in my area, I haven't gotten spring fever as bad as I did last year. But spring is in the air and gardening is soon to follow--which means we need to finish the rest of our garden boxes. Now that we're no longer trying to garden on a balcony in a city (which is one of many options for SFG), we have room for several boxes, in addition to our traditional garden, which we use for growing potatoes and the bigger plants, like squash.

I've written briefly about Square Foot Gardening in the past, which has been our preferred method of gardening for a few years now. It was developed by Mel Bartholomew and has revolutionized home gardening around the world. Its empowering principles are the reason I'm an SFG convert. Here are the most important points to know about Square Foot Gardening, from Mel's blog:

Compared to traditional row gardening, SFG takes only…

• 50% of the cost
• 20% of the space
• 10% of the water
• 5% of the seeds
• 2% of the work

SFGing means:

• No more hoeing weeds
• No more heavy digging
• No more chemical fertilizers
• No more buying seeds every year
• No more rototiller
• No more all-at-once harvest
• No more excessive watering

I recommend getting your own copy of Mel's book, as there aren't generally many in library systems. You will want to refer to it repeatedly for details on how to set up your box, plant, water, etc. Our SFGs last year were a great disappointment because we left in the plastic weed barrier that was already there underneath. This year we will be using the recommended weed barrier fabric instead, which will hopefully eliminate those problems. (So learn from our mistakes and don't use plastic...!)

Gardening Excuses

Many of those who read my blog are fellow gardeners, but I'm trusting that some of you aren't. Maybe you would like to garden, but you have one or more of the following reasons for not doing so:

• My yard is too small (or I don't have a yard).
• I don’t have a tiller or other garden tools.
• I’ve never gardened before.
• I don't have time.
• I hate the weeding and the work.
• My soil is too poor to grow anything.
• Gardens use too much water (I particularly understand this one, living in deserts most of my life).

Well, the good news is that if you have the desire (or even if you don't, but you know how important gardening is to self-sufficiency and health--so maybe you have guilt about not gardening), no matter how many of the above reasons you have for not gardening, you can still do it. There's an easier way than what you're probably familiar with, and it's the way I prefer to garden (and I love gardening!). Stay tuned for my next post, when I'll discuss it in more detail...

Root Cellaring

I have been learning about root cellaring lately and recently read this book by Mike and Nancy Bubel.  It gave me ideas about how to better store my fall produce in our basement, and what options we have for building in the future.  I would love to have my own root cellar and be able to fill it with our own produce to last through the winter. Imagine not having to rely on the grocery store at all for fruits and vegetables...

I hadn't thought much about root cellaring until I saw this book and started contemplating why this method of storing fruits and vegetables might be important.  One answer is obvious: If the electricity went out for any length of time, all the fruits and vegetables I have in my freezer (which is mostly what I have in there) would need to be used quickly or go bad.  The other answer is that, while home canning is an important skill to know and use, and that is a great way to build up food storage, it also takes a lot of energy (physically and electrically) to put up food that way--so it's not actually the most environmentally friendly option.  Besides that, eating your produce fresh (or fresh-cooked) is more nutritious than eating bottled goods anyway.

Do any of you have a cellar or had one growing up?  Memories? Do any of you have aspirations, like I do, to build one?

Canning Pickles

A couple weeks ago I was grateful to receive several cucumbers from neighbors, since the ones we planted never produced. (We'll be tweaking the garden for next year; every year we learn something new.) I had planted cucumbers mostly because I wanted to make pickles, since I remembered all the homemade pickles I ate growing up, and how inferior the store variety tasted compared to them. I also wanted to can pickles because I didn't want to buy them but I did want them in our food storage.

It wasn't a huge canning project (which is good, since I don't yet have the energy for anything too big anyway), but it was enough to help me feel I accomplished something and to give me a sense of self-sufficiency.

I look forward to tasting them in 4-6 weeks, when the pickles have cured!

(If anyone would like the recipe, let me know. It's pretty basic and does not include any of that pre-packaged pickle solution stuff.)

Making and Canning Applesauce

My aunt and uncle's trees produced more apples this fall than they could handle, so they asked around the family for anyone interested in taking some of them off their hands. I ended up taking about 100 pounds, with the intention of doing a lot of canning. Since my family likes applesauce and could potentially eat a lot of it (just plain as well as in recipes) over the next couple years, I decided to make most of the apples into applesauce.

Because of my schedule I haven't been able to dedicate even one whole day to this endeavor and have to do it in a few hour chunks here and there. So it's a good thing apples save! Yes, it takes way too long, and no, I don't particularly enjoy the whole process.

But there is something so satisfying about seeing the results of my labors.

And there is also a lot to be said for the example this sets for my children, and how they learn that applesauce isn't just something you buy at the store. They are also learning from the experience of watching and participating, just as I did growing up.

Lastly, I love how none of the products of this process are wasted, since we compost it all.