Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth

Christmas is my favourite 'celebration time' of the year. I love the build up, the excitement, the decorations, the music and all the fuss. BUT what I don't like is the sky-rocketing cost of Christmas both financially, to buy so many gifts, cards, decorations, clothes etc; but also the environmental cost of the throw away plastic stocking filler toys, the endless packaging, the throw away gift wrapping and overall excess and resulting wastage.  

Yes you can now buy cheap Christmas goodies - ornaments, stockings, decorations etc - but images and stories (like this one from the Huffington Post) about where these cheap Christmas things are made provide even more of a reason to make things yourself! Do you want a plastic, artificial Christmas mass produced in China, or a more personal handmade - eco-friendly Christmas just the way you want?

Christmas shouldn't cost the Earth

I believe you can celebrate Christmas in a big way and in style without it costing the Earth.

You can  'use what you've got'  to make and create decorations, gifts, foods etc and do it all in an eco-friendly and sustainable way by using what you've got and being smart.

Click on the pictures and links below to see more.

There is also a group Pinterest board where I invite anyone to add inspiration they find for an Eco and Budget Friendly Christmas. There are already heaps of ideas there - come and take a look!

And here are some tutorials for things to sew for Christmas, at little or no cost - 

Use What You've Got!

A flurry of snowmen!

Last month here on the blog we had the 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges. Each day the challenge was to make something for Christmas using what you had on hand.  

Challenge 5 was to take something from your shed or outhouse and turn it into a Christmas decoration.  I made a garden snowman from an old broken fence pailing.

It was so easy to make and looked so cute in the garden, that yesterday my girls made me a few more from other fence pailings we had!

They had fun making them - adding their own touches with different shaped eyes, noses and buttons!

So now we have a whole row of snowmen standing by our pool!

And some new solar lights to add to the effect!

Have you ever made any Christmas decorations from something in your shed? Or do you have any ideas or inspiration to make something this year?

More Upcycled Reusable Christmas Cards

Yesterday I made a few more upcycled reusable Christmas cards to post to family members.

I used a pair of old jeans I got from the charity shop for $1 and fabric scraps I already had, plus cereal boxes I've been collecting for a few weeks!

I stuck to very simple designs this year, making use of Christmas fabric I had.

If you haven't seen my reusable Christmas cards before - they have this message sewn on the back so the recipient knows the idea behind the card!

They have a clear plastic pocket inside where you can slip in a piece of paper with a greeting on.

 I sent my first batch of these cards last Christmas, and I'm curious to see if this year anyone reuses them and perhaps returns one to me !?

To see the cards I made last year and a tutorial showing how to make these cards - go here.

And two more I made this year - you can see here.

Do you make your Christmas cards each year? 

What materials do you use to make yours from?

To see lots of other ideas for an eco-friendly and budget Christmas - you can visit my page:

Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth

Or see this year's 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges 

Travel Advent Calendar Sew-along Day 5

Day 5

Today we're going to finish our Travel Advent Calendar!

You have all your pages ready.

Place them together as they will be for the finished book.

Make sure the cardboard is pushed firmly to the end of each page.

Make sure all the pages are evenly lined up and then pin down the spine, close to the cardboard pieces.

Now stitch along your pin line.

I recommend changing your sewing machine needle for this for something like a denim needle that can cope with all the thick layers of fabric.

Take the piece of fabric you cut in the beginning for the book  binding (19 x 7 cm (7 x 3 ").

Fold it in half, wrong sides of the fabric together, length-ways and stitch across the top edge with a 3/8" seam.

Now leave this inside out and slip it over the 'spine' of the book, Mark with a pin, where the 'spine' reaches up to.

Take your 'binding' off the spine again and stitch where you have pinned to form a pocket for the spine of the book.

Before adding the binding to the book, trim the top and bottom edges a little.  This will help the book to sit flat when it is opened out for use.

Now turn your binding piece right sides out and slip the spine of the book into it. Fold in the raw edges and pin.  This is quite a fiddly bit and does take a little patience!

Then finally, stitch the binding onto the spine of the book.

You may also want to use your zipper foot to be able to stitch nice and close to the cardboard pieces inside the book. Again patience is required here as your needle has to go through several layers of fabric. I found I turned the wheel on the side of my sewing machine manually at the start to get the needle going!

And that's it!  You've finished!!!

This year I decided to put some Christmas jokes in each pocket for my girls for the 24 Advent days - For a free printable copy of these 24 jokes, click here. You can then simply cut out the jokes and slip them into the pockets.

If you missed the earlier parts of this sew-along

Day 1 can be found here.
Day 2 can be found here.
Day 3 can be found here.
Day 4 can be found here.

I hope you've enjoyed this advent calendar sew-along.

I'd love to see your version of this if you make one!