living cheap now

Living cheap can also mean living green.  These days when we think of something green we don’t generally think of it being cheap.  Something “Green” or environmentally sound usually costs twice of three times as much as a non green item would.   My favorite kinds of “Green” things are the kinds that you can get for free or take care of all by yourself.

I have been blessed/cursed (depending on the humidity) with very thick, curly hair that is easiest to manage when worn long.  I often find myself in need of creative things to throw it up or push it back with.  There was a point in time when I found myself running out of things to do this with.  All of my old headbands were stretched out of shape as well and the elastic in my scrunchies was worn out too.  I didn’t even have money to go garage saling for them at the time.

While going through my husbands old stained T-shirts and deciding what was to pitiful looking to keep i was suddenly struck with an idea.  I cut out the salvageable areas of some of them and bought some cheap 1 inch wide elastic from Wal-Mart and made myself some scrunchies.  I hand stitched everything.

To make the elastic go farther for less money I cut it in half (you cut it into two 1.2 inch strips).   After I went through the T-shirts I started going through my closet and my kids closet and doing the same thing.    They an be made from old blue jeans and sweaters as well.

Then I learned about rag crochet.  Use use a rug sized crochet hook and cut your pieces of fabric in a spiral to get the longest strips.  This means you start on the outside on the piece of fabric and cut around the edges of the fabric working your way toward the inside so you get one long piece.  I crochet these into simple broad headbands.  I found I could make really interesting headbands by using fabric that was striped or had different colors in it.  I have seen people make these same headbands by crocheting old plastic grocery bags.

When I got finished with the hair stuff I started thinking about other things I could make.  I saved up several pairs of bluejeans and made a long full skirt out of the pieces.   I sews it so that the frayed edges faced outward.  That skirt is 4 years old and I still wear it.  Its heavy,warm and comfortable and I still get compliments on it.  I also made a simple long sleeved dress out of pieces of old sweaters.

Next time your going through your closet getting rid of old clothes that are stained or a little worn in places take a seond look and think about what else you can make with them.