• Hand-me-down pullovers get a little feminine charm with this trick: Slice off the sweater just under your child’s bustline and the sleeves at the same length. Stitch the bottom of the sweater and the sleeves back on reversed, so that the ribbed bottom becomes an empire waist and upper sleeve details. It’s a surprisingly effective change that’s not hard to create.


• Outgrown dresses get new life sliced at the bust and stitched to a similarly sliced T-shirt that fits. If it’s long enough, the new combo works as a dress, but it’s cute as a tunic over jeans or leggings, too.


• No artistic talent? Google is your new best friend. You can type “butterfly silhouette” or “lion silhouette” into Google images and get totally traceable shapes for your appliqué. Just print and cut out.


• While it’s technically not reconstructing clothes, I’ve had great success turning thrifted pillowcases into summer dresses (just add straps and elastic at the top) and pajama pants (add foldover elastic to the seamed edge once you’ve cut it open, then slice up the middle of the pillowcase and sew up each side to make wide legs). Both are really cute.


• Loose dresses that no longer fit can be turned into skirts. It’s as simple as cutting off the top with the sleeves and the neck and adding foldover elastic to the top to make a new waist.


• Grubby sweatshirts get new life sliced up the middle of the front and trimmed with grosgrain ribbon or bias tape. We call them “pajama sweaters” at our house, where we try to keep the heat turned down as much as we can and often grab an extra layer for the hour between bath and bedtime.


• Outgrown T-shirts can become tank tops if you cut them off at the sleeves, add ribbon straps and (if you want or need to) ribbon trim to hem.


• Old T-shirts make great hoods to “winterize” another T-shirt that fits. You can find free hood patterns online and stitch them to a T-shirt.


• Clothes that won’t restyle make great scrap fabric for stuffed toys or patchwork. This is an especially great use of baby clothes that you’re too sentimental to send to Goodwill but that you know you won’t be using again.

Recycling clothes is a great way to save money, but it’s also a great way to help your kids develop their own sense of style.

• Old sweater


• Scissors


• Sewing machine or needle and thread

What to do:

It’s pretty simple: Start by slicing the sleeves off your sweater, right beneath the shoulder seam.



Next, using your sewing machine or needle and thread, hem the cut arm of the sweater to keep it from unraveling.



And that’s it. If you’re worried about the sleeve being too loose to fit comfortably on your child’s arms, hem the sleeve with foldover elastic (available at stores like JoAnn’s), but the sleeves usually seem to work just fine without it.



#2: Cardigan rule

An ill-fitting pullover can become an absolutely adorable cardigan with a little slicing and stitching.



What you need:

• Pullover sweater


• Fabric marker or tailor’s chalk


• Scissors


• Needle and thread or sewing machine


• Elastic loops and a decorative button or ribbon


• Other decorative elements, if you like

What to do:

Start by folding the sweater in half from side to side so you can find the center. Mark it with tailor’s chalk or a fabric marker. Using your mark as a guide, cut carefully up the front of the sweater with scissors.



Hem the raw edges of the sweater. (Alternatively, you can use contrasting thread and a blanket stitch.)



Using a needle and thread, sew a button at the top of the sweater on the right side. Attach an elastic loop to the opposite side so that the cardigan buttons at the top. (Since it’s too small, it can hang open below the top fastener.) You can also use ribbon to do this by tacking narrow ribbon along the neckline and leaving enough length on each side to tie in a bow.



Once you’ve done that, the sweater’s really finished, though you can embellish it with ribbon or appliqués if you want to.

 

• Stained (or just boring) T-shirt


• Fabric (old T-shirts or sweatshirts work great)


• Paper


• Pen


• Scissors


• Pins


• Needle and thread, or fabric glue

What to do:

Start by deciding what kind of appliqué you want to apply. If you’ve got one big stain on the front your T-shirt, it’s easy: Make a big appliqué to cover it. But if you’ve got several stains, you might have to get creative. My daughter tends to dip her sleeves in things, so I’ve done things like flower appliqués up and down both arms with no decoration on the front. Be creative — if you mess up, you’ve only messed up a T-shirt destined for the Goodwill bin anyway, right?



Use the paper to draw the pattern/s for your appliqué. Using your scissors, carefully cut around the outside of your pattern/s.



Pin the pattern/s to your scrap fabric, and cut neatly around the edges.



Pin the fabric appliqué/s to your T-shirt where you want it. Once you have it in place, you can either use a zigzag stitch to secure it or apply fabric glue to paste it on securely.



#2: Sleeve switch-a-roo

This is a little more complicated, but the results are really adorable. In this project — another one that works great for boys or girls — you basically slice up two T-shirts to make a new T-shirt. It’s particularly charming when one or both T-shirts is patterned, but solids work well, too. It works best with long-sleeved shirts; you can do it with short sleeves, but the sewing gets a little tricky.



What you need:

• Two stained T-shirts (one can be too small, but one needs to fit properly)


• Scissors


• Pins


• Needle and thread

What to do:

Start by cutting off the sleeves of one T-shirt so that there are no more visible stains on them.



Now, use the cut-sleeves from the first T-shirt as a pattern to measure the length you need to cut the sleeves from the other T-shirt.



Pin the sleeves from the second T-shirt to the sleeves of the first T-shirt. Use a running stitch to secure.



You can use scraps of from the second T-shirt to make appliqués for the body of the T-shirt if you want to.



#3: Patchwork fix

If you have T-shirts that fit in some places but not in others — for instance, the sleeves are too short, but the neck is just right — you can cut them up and reassemble them to make a shirt that actually fits.



What you need:

• A stack of old T-shirts


• Scissors


• Pins


• Needle and thread

What to do:

Start by having your child try on the T-shirts to see what you can use. You need to find a shirt with a neck and shoulders that fit comfortably to get started.



To make the shirt longer: Slice off the shirt at the chest, and carefully cut a section from another shirt several inches wide. Pin the section of the second shirt to the first, stitch it into place, then pin and stitch the original T-shirt bottom to the added section.



To make the sleeves longer: Cut off the short sleeves at about elbow length, then cut two same-size sections from the sleeves of another T-shirt. Pin the sections to the cut-off sleeves of the first T-shirt; stitch into place and then pin and stitch the original sleeves back on.



 

I’m starting with pants, which my skinny kids outgrow in length way before they outgrow them in the waist and hips. I basically have three tricks for making pants last longer.

#1: Add a fancy border

This is probably the easiest way to make pants that fit every way but length live a little longer: Just add a decorative border to the end of the pant legs. You can buy decorative ribbon in various weights and widths — in general, I try to match the weight of the ribbon the weight of the pant fabric, but I’ve used embroidered silks at the ends of jeans sometimes because my daughter likes them.

What You Need:

• Scissors


• 3- to 4-inch thick plain or decorative ribbon


• Needle


• Thread (I usually go for a color that matches the original pants, but I think contrasting thread could also be really cute.)

Start by measuring out the amount of ribbon you need for each pant leg. Arrange one pant hem flat in front of you, and wrap the ribbon around it. Snip. (If you’re a nervous cutter, a little more is better than a little less here.) Use that snipped piece of ribbon to cut the ribbon for your other leg.

Pin the ribbon to the inside of the pant hem, using pins to secure it all the way around. You’ll want to pin it so that you have about ¼-inch allowance for the seam. (I usually try to set it up so that it runs just above the existing pants hem — it’s easier to sew that part of the jean, and the stitch is less noticeable there, I think. You could always rip out the hems, but that’s usually more work than I’m willing to do, honestly.)

Neatly stitch the ribbon to the hem, making sure it stays smooth and doesn’t bunch up. I’d probably use a running stitch for this, but you can use any secure stitch that feels comfortable for you.

Repeat for the other leg.

Easy, right? Because my daughter is an active member of the “more is more” school, I usually end up adding the same ribbon trim to the edges of the pockets and making her a little matching belt with the leftover ribbon. Once she convinced me to add sequin flowers to the legs because I am something of a pushover. The point is, you can keep things as simple or get as complicated as you want. When I do this with my son’s pants, I often just add a couple of inches of fleece in a contrasting color and leave it at that.

#2: Make them into shorts

I know it’s early to start thinking of summer, but since my children always seem to need all new clothes when warm weather hits, I often transform their outgrown fall pants into shorts. This is incredibly easy to do: You basically just slice of the legs and add a hem. If the pants are a little snug around the waist, you have enough fabric to add panels at the waistband, (If you want to know how to do this, shoot me a message, and I will be glad to send you directions.)

What You Need:

• Fabric pen, tailor’s chalk or just a Sharpie


• Scissors


• Thread


• Needle

Have your child try on the pants so you can tell where the shorts should hit. Use your pen to draw a line on the pant leg about an inch below the optimum length. (You’re going to hem them, so you need to cut them a little longer than the place you want them to hit.)

Fold the pants in half, carefully ensuring that the waistband is even all around. Then cut through both legs neatly, following the line you drew.

Pin the pants up, leaving about ¼-inch above the pins for stitching. It’s very easy to run these through the sewing machine; it’s almost as easy to sew them by hand. And when you’re done, you have a head start on your summer wardrobes.

#3 Turn them into a skirt

This is only slightly more complicated, though somewhat less gender neutral. But too-short pants can turn pretty easily into a sweet little skirt. You just slice off the legs, use the leftover fabric to fill out the skirt and hem up the whole thing.

What You Need:

• Fabric pen, tailor’s chalk or just a Sharpie


• Scissors


• Seam ripper


• Needle


• Thread
  
  

Have your child try on the pants so you can determine what length the skirt should be. The tricky part of this determination is that you need the cut-off part of the skirt to be as long as the skirt itself; otherwise the project doesn’t really work. So you may need to do some measuring to make sure you have things right. (If you’re really close on length, you can opt not to hem the skirt and leave the edges ragged — they look kind of cool, and a lot of children’s skirts that you’d pay for have this effect.) If you plan to hem it, remember that you need to make your mark a little lower than the actual place you want the skirt to hit to account for the hemming.

Once you’ve got the length settled, mark it with your pen. Fold the pants in half at the waist and carefully cut off the legs using your mark as a guide.



Turn the pants inside out. Using your scissors, cut along the insides of the legs, following the existing seam line. (You could rip the stitches with your seam ripper, but there’s so much fabric here that it’s quicker and easier just to cut.)



Now, grab your seam ripper and rip the outside seam of each leg about halfway up.



Cut your cut-off pant legs along the seam lines. (No need to use the seam ripper.) You should have four rectangles of fabric. You’ll want to neatly pin each of them into the four openings in the skirt: one at the front, one at the back and a smaller one at each side, leaving about ¼-inch above the pins for sewing. (You can pin and sew one at a time — I usually just pin them all at once, but that’s just because I have to go in another room when I want to pin something so my son doesn’t try to eat the pins!) Don’t worry about whether the panels are longer than the skirt right now, but do go ahead and trim off the excess fabric at the places where the openings narrow.



Stitch in each of the panels. Again, you can use your machine or do this by hand.



Once that’s done, carefully trim the ends so that they skirt is even all the way around. If you’re leaving the ends ragged, you’re done. If you’re hemming, pin up the hem and stitch it down.











 

• Old books


• Sturdy cardstock


• Scissors


• Glue or rubber cement


• Hole punch


• Yarn


• Blunt or plastic needle with wide eye

What You Do:

1. Start by choosing pictures that you’ll turn into cards. Ideally, you want graphic images that take up most of the page and will be easy to “trace” around with your hole punch. Carefully tear or cut the pages you choose from the book.


2. Next, paste the page onto sturdy cardstock so that the image you’ve chosen is visible. Let the pages dry. If you need to, trim the page and/or cardstock so that they are the same size.


3. Now, grab your hole punch and punch holes around the edges of the main image. You want the holes to be a couple of inches apart so that your child can draw the yarn through them.


4. Help your child thread the needle, and show him how to work the yarn through the holes around the image.

It’s easy entertainment that most kids love. And you can't beat the price.

 

I may be biased, but I think these bookmark valentines are great — not only are they charming to look at, but they also encourage reading. Bonus: They’re pretty darn easy to make.

What You Need:

• Sturdy cardstock


• Decorative paper (such as wrapping paper, scrapbooking paper, etc.)


• Rubber cement or glue


• Hole punch


• Scissors


• Narrow ribbon or yarn


• Pen

What You Do:

Start by cutting strips of cardstock into the length and width of a bookmark. (Once you’ve got one you like, you can use it as a pattern for cutting out the others, but don’t get too obsessed with making them all the same size and shape — a little variation isn’t a big deal.) Depending on how thick your cardstock is, you may want to paste two of them together for a sturdier bookmark.

Now, choose the paper to cover the cardstock. You can cut out strips to make a collage, use one pattern on the front and another on the back or stick to one pattern for the whole bookmark. Carefully cut and paste the paper to the bookmark. (Remember, you can always trim the edges if you need to.) Let it dry.

Meanwhile, cut out cardstock hearts about the same width as your bookmark. You basically want them to be about ¼ the size of your bookmark, and you’ll need one for each of your bookmarks. You can leave the hearts plain or cover them with decorative paper.

For each bookmark, arrange a heart so that it’s at the top of the bookmark, with the curves of the heart touching the top edge of the bookmark. Carefully, punch two holes so that they go through the heart and the bookmark. Thread the ribbon through the holes and secure the heart to the bookmark with a neat bow or knot.

Let your child write a Valentine message on the heart. (My daughter opted for the not-very-sentimental but very 1st-grade-appropriate Groucho Marx quote: “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.’ She did add “Happy Valentine’s Day” at the end.) We wrote the message on the back side of the heart — you could certainly write it on the front, or indeed, on the bookmark itself.

And that’s it: The bookmark is great because it wraps around the page, making it less likely to slip out. They don’t even take long to dry, and they’re almost ridiculously easy to make.

And I have to confess: I’m hoping I end up with one of these myself on Valentine’s Day.

• Sheets of construction paper, one for each card (or cut to make enough cards for the class)


• Leftover paper scraps (we have these from scrapbooks pages, dilapidated picture books, old cards and calendars, etc.)


• Scissors


• Thick thread or yarn


• Wide-eyed needle


• Straight pins


• Small hole punch (optional)


• Pen

What You Do:

• Start by cutting out hearts from your scrap paper. Lots and lots of hearts. My daughter has a great time doing this — she does it the simple way, folding the paper in half and cutting a half-heart along the folded edge. They don’t need to be a uniform size or shape.


• Next, fold your sheets of construction paper in half to make cards. You can fold them to open on the right or, as we did, to open at the bottom.


• Thread your needle with a long string of yarn, tying a knot in the end of the yarn.


• Let your child arrange hearts on each construction paper card until she has a design she likes. (My daughter made a row of similar-sized hearts in a straight line across the front of our practice card.)


• Secure the design with straight pins, then let your child stitch each card into place. (You can get fancy and stitch around the edges if you want, but one wide stitch in the middle works just fine, too.) You can use the hole punch here, if you want to, to make the sewing a little easier, but it’s not hard to push it through the construction paper if you don’t have a hole punch.


• Once it’s done, let your child write a Valentine’s message inside and sign her name. My daughter wrote “I hope your Valentine’s Day is sew special.” (Get it?)
  

   

  
  

Sure, it’s a little more time-consuming than opening the plastic box — but not much. Now let's just hope she makes one for her mom!

Here are some of our favorite cold weather nature activities — maybe they’ll inspire you, too.

Nature Journaling

My daughter has been keeping a nature journal for years, where she sketches pictures and writes descriptions of birds, butterflies, plants, animals and insects in our yard. The animals and plants that stick around for the cold weather are a totally different group from the ones who hang out in the backyard when it’s warm outside. My daughter loves when we can correctly identify a bird from her sketch and description of it, and we all have fun seeing what different things we notice. When it’s really cold, we sometimes do this through the window, but it’s really more fun when you can use all five senses.

Bird Feeding

Feeding the birds is a big activity around our house. We regularly smear pinecones with peanut butter, roll them in birdseed and hang them out for the birds to enjoy. (One of our neighbors turns their Christmas tree into a bird-feeding tree every January, putting it out in the yard hung with bird feeders. Genius!) Even our 16-month-old can help with the rolling, though we do have to watch him to minimize birdseed consumption.

Collage Making

We’re always running around the neighborhood looking for art materials during the summer, but winter has some great finds, too. Bare branches, shiny berries and hedge seeds and other winter flora make a great basis for collaging. Nice moms will let their children cover them with glitter “snow,” but I’m only a nice mom every once in a while.

And when it’s really, really cold …

Weather Kid

My daughter is slightly obsessed with making charts and loves to hear herself talk, so my husband came up with the brilliant idea of letting her do weekly weather forecasts for us. This is a great project even when it’s too cold to go outside because it relies on observation and recording. We keep a Weather Book on the front door, where my daughter records the temperature (high and low) and weather for each day. We also made a felt board (I hot-glued black felt to a broken-down box) to hang on the front door and cut out weather shapes so that she can post the weather each day. (We have fun stuff, like lighting bolts and tornadoes in addition to the usual sunshine and clouds.) On Saturday evenings, we get treated to a full weather report, recapping the week. She’s learning about percentages, weather patterns and basic meteorology; we’re hearing less “I’m bored.”

As we look for more ways to spend less money, I’ve found that our lives get fuller and fuller. For us, an afternoon of feeding the birds is way more fun than anything on the Disney Channel — and I think I like it that way.

So when my daughter asked me about our financial stability, I had an idea. Why not sit down together as a family and come up with plans to save money in 2009? Not only is it a good idea to keep our daughter looped into our financial plans, it’s also a great opportunity to teach her about the value of a dollar and the importance of reusing and recycling the stuff we already have. After an afternoon of cinnamon bread and planning, we had some financial resolutions for 2009:

We will (mostly) give up fancy beverages. Other than milk and OJ, we won’t be buying any drinks from the supermarket except for as an occasional treat. Water is healthy, and it tastes just fine — and those drink costs add up fast. We’ll also be (mostly) sticking to water when we go out to eat.

We will (mostly) pay cash. Those little plastic cards are handy, but they sure do make it easy to spend money without realizing how it’s adding up. From now on, we’ll be hitting the store with the budgeted amount of cash in our pockets instead of the debit or credit card.

We will turn the thermostat down one degree. If I had realized that one degree of difference could save us as much as 5% of our energy bill, I would have done this a lot sooner — I doubt we’ll even notice the difference.

We will eat less meat. Last year, we stopped eating any food that wasn’t locally or seasonally available, and we saved a little money doing that. This year, we’re going to significantly reduce the amount of meat we eat. We’re definitely omnivores, so you won’t see us making a total vegetarian switch, but we’ll use meat more as a flavoring agent than as the main event.

We will turn things off. This one should be easy, but there’s often an empty room in our house with the lights on, and I am notorious for leaving my computer up all night. This year, we’re going to be more conscious of the things we turn on and focus on remembering to turn them off.

We will have one $0 weekend each month. Once a month, we’ll designate a no-spending weekend where we’ll have to make our fun without spending any money. It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of free community events at the nature center and the library as well as a chance to spend time doing the things we never seem to find time for, like family game night or toasting marshmallows in the fireplace.

I don't want my daughter to worry about money. I also want her to understand that money matters and smart spending is the way to go. Coming up with family resolutions to spend less and save more was a great way to get her on board the Stingy Train.

I don’t, however, think that the fact that I refuse to buy pricey paper means that I can’t have pretty presents. My daughter and I have a great time coming up with creative ways to make our presents look gorgeous without having to shell out a dime for wrapping paper. I thought I’d share some of our favorite wrapping techniques.

Newspaper

This one’s such a classic, but the crisp black and white ink looks absolutely classic when you tie it up with a real ribbon. We use inside pages or classifieds because I like words better than pictures, but you could use any pages you liked. If you’re like me and pretty much always have a pile of recycling waiting in the garage, this technique’s a no-brainer. Use it just as you would wrapping paper.

Old Calendar Pages

Out with the old, in with the new! Instead of just tossing your old agenda and calendar pages, use them to make creative wrapping paper. You can wrap small gifts using one page from a calendar, or layer calendar pages to wrap bigger presents.

Old pillowcases

I can’t resist a pretty old pillowcase at a flea market, so we usually have a drawer full of them. Pillowcases are a particularly pretty way to wrap presents — for some reason, people are always impressed that you’ve used cloth, but there’s pretty much zero effort involved. You can use the pillowcase as you would paper and fold and tape it in place, or you can just put your gift inside the case and tie it with a bow.

Coffee Cans

We drink a lot of coffee, and we always have a pile of shiny silver cylinders in the cupboard. These are perfect for smaller gifts — just clean them out, slip your gift inside, pop on the lid and tie on a ribbon.

Decorated Paper

We buy big rolls of brown paper for art projects, so we usually have a lot of it lying around. I think it makes a nice gift wrap all by itself, but my daughter loves to dress it up by sponging on gold paint, using stencils or drawing pictures.

Maps

My husband has probably never crossed a state line without picking up a free map at the Visitors Center. These free maps make great wrapping paper, especially when you’re wrapping a gift for someone who loves to travel.

Waxed Paper Art

This one requires a little more effort, but it’s fun. Collect an assortment of flower petals and leaves (we used rosemary and dill from our herb containers), then pull out your ironing board. Spread a plain cloth on the board, then place a sheet of waxed paper on top of it. Scatter the petals and leaves until you’re happy with the way they look. Put the second sheet of waxed paper over the arrangement, then press your iron across the paper. The heat of the iron glues the sheets of waxed paper together, creating unique wrapping paper.

However you decide to wrap things up, I hope you and your family have a very happy holiday!

• Cardboard cut into a rectangle twice the side of the book you want to make (we used the flap of an old box and planned to make a 4x6-inch book)


• Decorative paper or fabric cut in a rectangle about 2 inches longer on all sides than the size of your book


• Rubber cement


• Scissors


• Sheets of sturdy paper, such as posterboard, cardstock, photo paper, etc., cut into rectangles about 1 inch smaller on all sides than the size of your book


• Strong needle


• String or thread

What You Do:

1. First make the book. Start by finding the center of the cardboard rectangle and marking it. (You can use anything you want to mark it, since it’s going to be covered up.) This will be the center of the book, so make sure you are happy with the size before moving forward.


2. Use your scissors and a straight-edge to lightly score on either side of the mark you just made, running from top to bottom. (This is probably an adult project.) Now, carefully fold along the scores. This makes a spine for your book.


3. Spread the book flat again. Apply a thin layer of rubber cement over the outside of the book. Carefully position the fabric or decorative paper so that it’s evenly places over the cardboard, then press it firmly down. You might want to use a book to keep the pressure even.


4. Now apply rubber cement around each of the inner sides and corners of the cardboard base, working on one part at a time. Apply the cement, then pull the fabric into place over it so that the fabric is taut. Try the keep it reasonably neat, but don’t obsess: You’re going to glue some paper there, too. Let it dry.


5. Once that’s done, decide how many pages your book will have. Around 12 is a good number so that sewing’s not a killer. You’ll stitch the sheaf of pages carefully up along the edge that will fit into the spine of the book, so make sure you’re stitching the right part of the paper.


6. Once you’ve sewn up the book, carefully fit the spine into the book’s spine. Make sure the pages are centered. Apply rubber cement to the book’s inside front cover, then gently press the first of the sewn pages into the rubber cement. You may want to use a book to make sure it’s smooth. Do the same thing with the back page and the back cover.


7. Let it dry, and then you can use the book however you want.

• A small sock (Finally! A use for all those mate-less socks in the laundry room!)


• Catnip


• Scissors


• Felt


• Yarn


• Needle

What You Do:

1. Stuff the sock with catnip. (You don’t have to fill the whole sock; just fill it until it looks “mouse-shaped” to you, then trim off the excess. Sew up the open end of the sock.


2. Cut two mouse ears from felt and stitch neatly to either side of the mouse’s head.


3. Using the yarn, slip  your needle into the stitched-shut edge to make a tail; trim yarn to desired length. (We went with a couple of inches but weren’t very precise about the measurements.) 


4. Use your yarn to make two French knots to make eyes for your mouse.

Gift Option 2: Crazy Quilt Chase Toy

For cats who love to chase and pounce, this fabric toy is likely to be a big hit. It is so easy to make that I think very young children could work on it if you use a not-too-sharp needle. If you don’t have a room full of fabric scraps, consider rooting through your Goodwill bags and choosing a couple of things to cut up from them.

What You Need:

• A variety of fabric scraps, cut into 1-inch squares (It is definitely not worth being precise on this measurement — a little bigger or smaller is no big deal.)


• A needle


• Sturdy thread

What You Do:

Thread your needle with a long piece of thread, around 2 feet, and tie a knot securely at one end.



Using the needle, carefully pierce each fabric square in the middle (again, close is fine) and slide it down the thread. Continue threading pieces until the string reaches a length you like, then tie another knot to secure the fabric scraps.





Gift Option 3: Homemade Dog Biscuits

Why should your puppy be the only one not to benefit from your holiday baking? These dog treats are easy to make and make a great gift for friendly neighborhood dogs as well as your own pooch. I got this recipe from a friend and liked it because it didn’t have any “weird” ingredients.



What You Need:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 cup all-purpose flour


• ½ cup powdered milk


• ½ cup wheat germ


• 1 large egg, slightly beaten


• 6 Tablespoons Crisco


• ½ cup warm water


• ¼ cup flaxseed (optional)

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 325.


2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Cut in Crisco. Add egg and water. Stir in flaxseed, if using.


3. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until about ½-inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into shapes.


4. Bake for 30 minutes.

Gift Option 4: Snugly Blanket

This is a great gift for any pet who likes a warm spot to snuggle. It’s also a great way to feel better about how quickly your kids outgrow their sweaters. You’ll be using old sweaters that have been felted (basically, washed and dried in the machine) to make a cute patchwork blanket for your pet.



What You Need:

• Old natural-fiber sweaters (no synthetics or cottons) that have been washed and dried using the washing machine


• Scissors


• Sturdy cardboard square


• Sewing machine

What You Do:

1. Start by using your cardboard square pattern to trace and cut squares from the sweaters. I recommend opting for a big square, one that is almost the size of the entire front part of the smallest sweater, to make this project a little quicker, but you can make the squares any size you want.


2. Once you’ve cut out enough squares to make the size blanket you want, pin the squares together in a pattern you like.


3. Carefully sew the squares together using your sewing machine. (You can certainly do this by hand if you want to.) Don’t worry about hemming — the felted fabric won’t unravel.

• T-shirt


• Throw pillow


• Washable fabric marker


• Needle


• Thread

What to do:

1. Measure your throw pillow. You’ll want to trace your pattern on the T-shirt about an inch and a half over the dimensions of the pillow.


2. Carefully trace your pattern on the T-shirt with the washable fabric marker, centering the image or logo on the pattern.


3. Cut carefully. If you hold the T-shirt together, you can cut both sides at once and save yourself a step. If you like the image on the back of the T-shirt, too, though, you might want to pattern and cut it separately.


4.  Turn the fabric so that the wrong side is facing out on both sides, then pin the sides of the pillow together on three sides, about a ½ inch from the edge of the T-shirt fabric. If your child is comfortable sewing, she can take over here, neatly stitching up the sides. You can do this by hand or use a sewing machine, whichever is easier for you. Just be sure to leave the opening on one side wide enough to stuff your pillow into.


5.  Slip the T-shirt over the pillow, smooth it out, then sew up the last side. (If you’d rather, you can stitch a zipper into the side you’ll leave open and then just zip it up, but it works fine to sew it up, too, if you’re intimidated by zippers.)

Voila! Adorable pillow. My daughter has enjoyed choosing the T-shirts for this so much that she’s made even more than the original plan. (Don’t tell her dad, but I see an old-school Metallica T-shirt in his future!)

• Leftover fabric (prints are more fun than solids)


• Cotton batting


• Cardboard (we used old boxes)


• Felt


• Hot glue gun or fabric glue


• Scissors


• Decorations, such as buttons, beads, appliqués, etc., if you want


• Photos

What You Do:

1. Cut the cardboard to the right size for the photo you want to use. (We almost always have 4x6 photos, so we cut out rectangles just a little bigger than that.) I use the box cutter to do this, so it’s probably a mom or dad task.


2. Once you’ve got your rectangle, you’ll need to cut another rectangle inside it to make the frame. Make sure you size it so that the picture you want to include will show properly. We leave about an inch of frame all the way around. (If you’re doing a batch of these, you might as well use this one as a pattern and go ahead and cut out a bunch at once. Ask your child to trace the frames onto the cardboard while you cut.)


3. Now let your child choose his favorite fabric, and cut out a matching frame shape from it. You want to allow extra fabric on each side for folding over.


4. You also need a “frame” of cotton batting that’s smaller than the fabric frame but a little wider than the cardboard frame.


5. Use fabric glue or a hot glue gun to attach the cotton batting to the cardboard frame. (Fabric glue is stickier, but your kids can use it. Hot glue is easier, but you have to man the gun. My daughter loves gluing, so we usually opt for fabric glue.) Glue the overlap to the back of the frame.


6. Center the fabric frame on top of the cotton batting, and carefully glue it to the batting, pulling it tight and gluing the overlap on the back of the frame. Help your child to pull it tight so that the front of the frame looks smooth.


7. Cut out a felt rectangle large enough to cover the back of the frame. Apply glue to three sides, leaving one side unglued so that you can slip your picture in. Press the edges down firmly.


8. Now you can slide your photo into the felt flap and call it a day, or — if you’re like my offspring — you can add some embellishments. We stitched on a few buttons to one of our frames and added sparkly beads to another one, but you could do almost anything.

These are so easy, and if you have coordinating fabric, a set of three (complete with photos) makes a perfect grandparent gift. If you’re like me and terrible about actually buying picture frames, they’re also a nice holiday present for your own desk.





 

A pretty good one, as it turns out. As an adult, pretty soaps are one of my favorite things to get because, well, they’re one of those things that you seldom buy for yourself. And they’re a perfect way to dress up your guest bathroom. So in honor of all those maligned soaps from my childhood, my daughter and I decided homemade soaps would be the perfect holiday gift for her teachers this year.

(As an aside, I’m just going to add that a study by the PTA found that teachers’ most appreciated gifts were handwritten holiday cards, so please, please, please, whether you make handmade soaps or buy something totally different, take the time to write your child’s teacher a nice note letting him or her know how much you appreciate all your child is learning this year.)

We decided to make soap cubes for a couple of reasons: One, you can make them easily in a standard ice tray, so we didn’t have to buy any fancy molds or containers for them. Two, we had a bunch of mason jars left over from our summer experiments with canning, and my daughter thought the little cubes of soap would look pretty stacked up in the jars. (She was right.)

What You Need:

• glycerin (you can find this sold in small blocks in most craft stores or order it online)


• ice-cube trays


• liquid food coloring


• vegetable spray


• cotton swabs


• microwave-safe bowl

What You Do:

1. Cut off a chunk of glycerin the right size to fit into your microwave-safe bowl and place it in the bowl.


2. Use your cotton swab to add a smudge of food coloring on top of the glycerin block. Remember: A little food coloring goes a long way, so unless you want blindingly bright colors, go easy. We mixed blue and green to create a soft turquoise shade for one batch and purple and blue a periwinkle shade for our second batch, but you could use any combination of colors you like.


3. Melt the glycerin in your microwave until it’s totally melted. It’s a pain, but you should take it out every 15 seconds or so to check on it and give it a stir. (The container might get hot, so grab it with a potholder.)


4. Spray your ice cube tray with vegetable cooking spray. (This is to make the soap easier to pop out when it’s cooled.)


5. Carefully, pour the melted glycerin mixture into the ice tray, filling each compartment until it is nearly to the top.


6. Let it cool for about two hours, then pop the cubes out.

As my daughter suggested, we stacked our soaps in alternating colors in a clear glass jar and tied them up with pretty silk ribbons, then attached a note from my daughter to dangle from the ribbon. They looked gorgeous and came together much more easily than I’d anticipated. In fact, I liked the results so much that I’m planning to make a few more batches for other gifts.

• a tote bag in a solid color or subtle pattern


• fabric scraps in a variety of colors and patterns


• scissors


• straight pins


• needle


• embroidery floss


• embellishments, such as buttons, ribbon, etc.


• cardboard for making patterns (optional)

What You Do:

1. Sketch out a plan for your design. You want to keep it as simple and graphic as possible, so whittle images down to their most basic shapes for best results. Fancy details are probably just going to get lost. We experimented with lots of flower shapes and a sail boat before settling on a cute bird. (We made the body one curving shape, added a triangle beak and a curvy triangle wing shape.)


2. My daughter drew her patterns on a sheet of cardboard, then carefully cut them out. (You can skip this step and draw your design directly on the backside of the fabric if you want to.)


3. She then chose her fabric. (We always have a bunch of leftover fabrics floating around, but stores like Hancock Fabric sell bundles of coordinating quilting squares at inexpensive prices, or you can always use felt for a more graphic look.) I encouraged her to choose pieces that went together well, but I left the final decision up to her: For maximum charm, each element of your design should have its own fabric. She traced each pattern piece on the fabric she’d chosen.


4. We then pinned her design to the tote bag, moving the pieces around until she was totally satisfied. She also wanted to give her bird a branch to sit on, so we found some ribbon to make a branch and pinned that on, too.


5. When we were happy with the design, I helped her thread her needle with a full strand of embroidery floss and let her go to town sewing around the edges of her design. (We used a contrasting color so that the stitches really show up against the bag, but you could certainly be subtler.) She’s been sewing since she was 3 years old, and it’s been a great way to help develop her pincer grasp and fine motor skills. If your child is less experienced, it’s perfectly OK to jump in and lend a hand.


6. Once the pieces were securely attached, we removed the pins and added some embellishments: My daughter wanted a button eye for her bird, so we added a sparkly black button, and then she wanted to add a few more buttons on the other side of the bag for good measure. We also added a few shiny beads to the ribbon “branch” and along the top of the bag. You could add ribbon bows, a pattern of buttons — really, almost anything would work. As we were working, I thought that it would be really adorable to knit a row of tiny sweaters and stitch them into place across the front of the bag.

The finished bag was exactly what my daughter had envisioned, and she can hardly wait to wrap it up for her sitter. And now we’ve got a great blue print for making presents for everyone from our pals at the farmers market to teachers to cool aunts.

I also hate to-do lists, which the sensible part of me knows are the only way to get through the season without an explosion of cash and sanity. So I’ve come up with a solution: The advent countdown. Not only does it give us a fun project to put together, with plenty of counting and writing practice, but it also gives us a real game plan for the holidays and (dare I hope?) the prospect of a holiday celebration that’s actually fun.

We count down to Hanukah, but this calendar works just as well for Christmas or Kwanza. And unlike other advent calendars, where you score a piece of chocolate or holiday ornament each day, this calendar helps us actually organize our to-do list into a fun, totally manageable day-by-day project.

What You Need:

• paper


• calendar


• small envelopes or small pieces of paper, rolled into scrolls


• ribbon


• hole puncher


• glitter pen or other decorations for the envelope


• something to hang your envelopes, such as ornament hooks or clothespins.

What You Do:

Start by making your holiday to-do list. If you’re like me, your list is a combination of things to do and things to make. On the things to do list, don’t forget to include family traditions, such as trimming the Christmas tree or watching “Rudolph,” as well as more prosaic items, like holiday shopping and donating canned goods to a local shelter. The list may seem a little intimidating, but if you start now you can actually make some of your holiday gifts, saving money and giving your kids a chance to learn about the joy of giving. (I’ll be highlighting some fun holiday project ideas in upcoming columns.)

We have a bunch of little envelopes (don’t laugh, but they’re actually leftover from our wedding invitation reply cards), so we’re using those, but you could also roll your paper in little scrolls and tie it up with a pretty ribbon for the same effect. I’ll stand by while my 6-year-old uses the hole punch to punch a hole in the top of each envelope, then threads a ribbon through it and ties it into a knot. We’ll need 49 envelopes, one for each day between now and the night before Hanukah, so I’ll let her number them for me. I’ll probably even let her use the glitter pen because I’m a nice mama. Besides, decorating the envelopes is half the fun.

While she’s working on that, I’ll break down our workload into a project a day. I’ll plan a Saturday in early December to bake our holiday goodies and make sure I’ve got one kiddie craft project planned for each weekend. I’ll also set aside one night for our annual holiday party and one night to polish the menorah — all our holiday chores, from the sublime to the mundane, will go into individual envelopes. You’ll probably want to have a calendar handy when you do this — it makes sense to schedule certain activities while the kids are in school, and other things can really only happen on the weekend.

Once you’ve stuffed your envelopes, it’s time to display them. I’m planning to hang ours on a little tree in our living room, but you could also tape them to the wall or along the mantle, or you can string a line down the hall and clip them with individual clothespins.

Now, every day my daughter can open an envelope and get all of us excited about the holiday project we’ll be tackling that day. Taking it one day at a time means no last-minute running around, no throwing money at things because we’ve run out of time and — I’m hoping — a holiday that will actually be a good time, start to finish.

• 1 yard of medium-weight black fabric (I used some sturdy twill left over from a skirt pattern)


• 2 yards of narrow black ribbon


• Straight pins


• Safety pins


• Thread


• Assorted felt scraps, pipe cleaners, buttons and other decorative elements

What You Do:

• Lay fabric on your ironing board so that the back side of the fabric is facing up. Starting at one of the short sides, fold the fabric over about ¼ inch. Press with your iron. Then fold over another inch, and press again.


• Sew along the edge of the fold where it’s furthest from the top. Repeat the folding, pressing and sewing on the other short side.


• Now, fold the sides together so that the two short ends are exactly even and the sides are neatly lined up (the side you want to be on the outside should be on this inside in this step). Using a ¼-inch seam, stitch up the sides to close the bag, stopping at your foldover seam near the top.


• Turn your bag right side out and press the seams flat. (Doesn’t it look nice? Aren’t you the coolest mom ever?)


• Attach a safety pin to the end of one of your ribbons and let your child slide it through the opening on one side of the bag. Do the same thing on the other side.


• Now, tie the ends of the ribbon together in a basic knot, right at the edge of the bag. Snip off the ends if you want to, and there you go: basic drawstring bag.


• To make our black cat, my daughter cut out a big black circle from black felt for the cat’s face, which she sewed onto the front of the bag. She chose two green buttons, which we sewed on for the cat’s eyes. She cut out a small pink triangle for the cat’s nose and drew on the cat’s mouth with a white paint pen. She made two black triangles for the cat’s ears, which I sewed on. We stitched three pipe cleaners on either side of the cat’s face to make whiskers. You, of course, could make any design or other creature you like! Happy Halloween!

But after all the effort of stacking them up for 6 months — plus, um, the environment — I couldn't just toss them in the shredder. Being the Stingy Mommy, I knew that there had to be some way to turn a bunch of old newspapers into a fun (and inexpensive) craft project. Answer: make recycled paper! It took a good 20 minutes to convince my daughter that paper gets made somewhere to begin with — she seemed convinced that it sprung from the head of Zeus fully shrink-wrapped — but once I convinced her that it was possible to make paper, she was excited. When I warned her that it might be messy, she was naturally even more excited. And when she actually had paper that she'd made herself, she was as proud as I've ever seen her.

Two caveats: Don't try to do this on a rainy day. You need the sun to dry the paper out thoroughly, and if there's any moisture in the air ... well, let's just say your child is likely to be impatient. Second, be very careful as you're spreading out the pulpy paper material. If you leave any gaps or holes, they'll show up in the finished paper. Some irregularity makes the paper charming, but you don't want big gaps.

What You Need:

• one sheet of newspaper


• 10 sheets of toilet paper


• 2 cups of water


• a jar with a lid


• a mesh strainer


• a big bowl

What You Do:

1. Shred the newspaper and toilet paper into little pieces, like you're making confetti.


2. Put the shredded paper into the jar with the 2 cups of water. Put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously for 3 minutes to make paper pulp.


3. Pour the pulp over the strainer, pressing down gently to push out as much water as possible.


4. Spread the pulp on a flat surface, smoothing it into a rectangular shape and taking care to leave no holes in the pulp.


5. Let the paper dry, and voila! You've made your own paper.