I learned how to sew because I wanted to save money. About 15 years ago, my husband and I had moved into a new house and I wanted new curtains REALLY bad. But...we couldn't afford them. So, what did I do? Instead of putting something I couldn't afford on a credit card, I learned how to sew and make my own. My mom gave me one of her old sewing machines and I signed up for a class for $20 (1997 pricing...) which met once a week for about 8 weeks. My first class project was to make a dress. Mom helped me with this and it turned out okay. Okay enough for me to wear it once or twice, realize it looked like a beginner made it and then it was donated to someone who probably repurposed it for the fabric. After the dress, I tried making a skirt for myself which turned out better than the dress. And then I tried to make a pair of overalls for my nephew which turned out really bad.
Anyway - after making the clothes, I realized that for what I was spending in fabric and time I could just purchase the item off the rack for less money. And honestly, I really didn't like making clothes. But I did like making stuff for the house! I made curtains, pillows, duvet covers, etc. I really enjoyed it! These days, I don't make a lot of stuff for the house...mainly because I'm indecisive about what I want, but I DO do a lot of hemming and mending and by doing it myself, that has saved me a ton of money. I use my machine mainly to hem khaki pants, blue jeans, and sew badges/patches onto Scout shirts. I have easily saved more than $200 this year by doing this myself. And that's $200 that I can put towards something more important to me and my family...like vacations!
So if you find you're spending a lot of money having someone help you with your projects (insert whatever project it might be...), I encourage you to learn how to do it yourself! I took my class through the city's recreation department and it was very inexpensive. My machine is more than 30 years old and works just fine for what I do with it.
What types of projects do you do yourself in order to save money?
3 comments:
I have tried multiple times to learn to sew - I have to take a class before I shoot my sewing machine out the window!
I love sewing. It's something I haven't had time for in the 10 years or so but I'm hoping to get back to it next year.
It certainly saved me a LOT of money when my kids were young.
I sew, cook from scratch, make cards, etc... All hobbies that I love to do & save us $$! I think everyone should know some basic life skills... They're easy enough to learn!
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