I ran across a tutorial at AVeryRedKitchen.blogspot for making alphabet beanbags out of old t-shirts.  Check out this picture:

Katie has done a wonderful job of putting together a tutorial for these alphabet bean bags.  She has capital letters on one side and lower case letters on the other side.

After making a set of these bean bags, you can put a small basket in one corner and let the kids play!  I have tons of old t-shirts that have been “begging” to be recycled into something useful!  Looks like I can use the bodies of the t’s for a project and the sleeves for the alphabet bean bags.  Thanks a million, Katie for this great tutorial!

For additional ideas of projects to make for yourself, your customer waiting area, or for the next craft fair, visit PatternsThatFitYou for some free ideas, and Patterns2Go for tons of crafty ideas for men, women, children, neighbors, relatives — anybody you’d want to make something for!

Find crafts, fun and friends at the Craft Forum, and it’s FREE!  Check it out and sign up today.

March is National Craft Month and there is still plenty of time to get involved and use the event in your promotion activities!  There are 63 million households that craft as a hobby and this is a great opportunity to host in-store events, hold contests or other craft themed promotions.

The Craft & Hobby Association, sponsors of National Craft Month for sixteen years, has put together lots of free resources to help you maximize your public relations, tips on holding classes and demonstrations and new ideas on how to use National Craft Month to increase your business.

Dig out your button containers and see how many combinations you can come up with!

Aren’t they just adorable!!!

Check out the home page of Patterns2Go and see other popular patterns for kids and adults, then check out each of the various categories for quick and easy gifts to make — you still have time to make a bunch of gifts!!

Do you live in an area where you hold yard sales or garage sales from time to time?  Or if you live in a subdivision perhaps you can organize a “multi-family” yard sale which will draw even more people to the area.

Our subdivision puts together a semi-annual yardsale – one in April/May and the other around the end of Oct / first part of November.   Last Saturday was the Fall yardsale and I did something I’ve never done before, and I’m here to tell you I’ll be doing it again!

Along with all my racks of kids clothes, outgrown toys and tables of miscellaneous things, this time I made a “gift” table.  For the previous couple of weeks I’d made an assortment of gift items from my fabric scraps and leather scraps.  I went through my Sewing With Leather book and my folders of patterns I’d downloaded from Patterns2Go to see what could be made easily, quickly and cheaply that I could sell.  My gift table was full of toys for kids, stocking stuffer items, gift items that could be given to teachers, neighbors, etc.  I even put a very small Christmas tree on the table and had a sign that read “buy your Christmas gifts early”.  The prices were very good (I’d used scraps to make the items, so really didn’t have much invested in them so could mark them very inexpensively).

My gift table was the most popular spot in the driveway and by noon I was wishing I’d spent more time making extra gift items.

The whole point is this — the yard sale was scheduled and I decided to use it as a “craft” show as well by adding my gift table.  I realize it’s a little late to start organizing something  for this year, but mark it on your calendar so you’ll be prepared to do your own yard sale / craft show next year.  What a great way to use up a bunch of those scraps and bring in extra dollars for Christmas spending!

While you’re there, be sure to register for this week’s giveaway of a Dritz Rotary 45mm Cutter and Replacement Blade. This is an excellent tool that can cut single or multiple layers of fabric in any direction. Enter for a chance to win by submitting your name and address at the Rotary Cutter Giveaway page before November 13, 2009.

I never heard a word about any of this until last Saturday when he was at our house and saw something about Halloween on TV and informed me that he was going to be a robot for Halloween.  My heart sank – I knew that October 31 was a festival that my daughter and I would be attending (no time to make a costume that day) and that I’d be getting home around 6:30 – and Jacob would already be at my house for the weekend.

Fortunately I remembered seeing a blog post about making a robot costume from silver gift bags from Kitten Muffin at FilthWizdaryBlogspot that I’d saved months ago.  I hurriedly checked it out again and told Jacob we needed to go do a little shopping for robot costume stuff (this was last Saturday morning).  He willing said ok (he normally says NO! to any kind of shopping – he just likes to stay here with Papaw)

Well, we found a couple of great bags at Walgreens (one on sale for $1.00 and the other for $4.95) and I got him a pkg of stickers so he could decorate it.  He spent most of the day decorating with the stickers, then found an “American Eagle” picture he insisted on coloring to put on the robot costume.

Here’s a picture of Jacob with his “work in progress” and then the “finished” costume.

And now — TA DA — Jacob in the costume ready to head out for trick or treating!

The whole point of this post is to let you know how to get your kids started in the creating and crafting mode — and later on perhaps into the sewing mode as well!

The current economy, where people are losing jobs left and right, where homes are being foreclosed on and where those who DO have a job are seeing their hours drastically cut is making for a bleak Christmas.  Where will the extra money come from for those Christmas gifts, party outfits and new Christmas clothes for the kids?

One big way that those in  sewing businesses can  help out, and we’ve touched on this before, is to dig into the scrap boxes!  You probably have big enough scraps to make some infant / toddler size dresses, pants and blouses that you can have priced at a very nominal fee.  In addition, use those scraps to make a wide variety of toys for all ages, book marks and initial pillows for the teens, all of which can be very nominally priced because you’ve actually just used your “time” in making them, as the scraps are left overs from other paid jobs.

If you need ideas for things to make, “Nursery Room Projects” and “Sewing With Leather” can give you ideas, in addition to checking out Patterns2Go for free patterns and cheap patterns that you can use for those toys and other Christmas items.  Check out some tutorials at PatternsThatFitYou for additional ideas for projects.

After you’ve made a bunch of items, arrange them in your sewing room or customer waiting area, and take a few pictures.  Head down to the local newspaper to talk to one of the editors and let them know what YOU’RE doing to help the economy in your area — let them know you’ve made dozens of toys, infant / toddler outfits, etc and have marked them far below regular retail prices.  The newspapers are always looking for things to write about for their paper, so you might just get headlined in your daily / weekly paper.

If those who have a sewing business or craft business throughout the country would consider doing this type of scrap sewing for affordable gifts their customers can purchase, perhaps it would help ease the effects the economy is throwing at us, and make Christmas a little brighter for some who have no hopes for a Christmas at all.

From plain to fancy using the 12 in 1 magic ruler to do the scalloped edges as well as the flower.

The great thing is that you’re not limited to the “suggested” 12 ways to use the magic ruler; use your imagination according to the project you’re working on.

Check out SewWithSarah.com and watch the little video giving ideas for projects using the 12 in 1 magic ruler.