In harsh economic times, I think it's terrible to embark on a craft project when family needs should come first. The notion that people have to buy items to make a craft items is something I don't agree with. For me, it was the start of a very good thing - all because I was young, broke, hopeful, thrifty & most importantly, my family came first. My son was then 3 years old, we had just moved & had little cash to buy gifts for Christmas. A reason not to give a gift to family members? Absolutely not.
The very first Folded Star ornament I made was put together with as little aida cloth as possible and the folded outer fabrics cut from worn shirts & dresses. The styrafoam balls were purchased at our local thrift store with the ribbons & trims a hodgpodge of leftovers from friends.
I'm VERY thrifty to this day and never throw away any little bit of leftover fabric. It's all too easy to establish a stash of fabric leftovers, but sometimes hard to find a project that uses all those scraps. That's one reason I always LOVED Folded Star ornaments, with or without cross stitched centers. It's a perfect project for fabric stashers!
Do know that ALL the ornaments on our EBook cover were created from our own scrap stash Ribbons were all from either my scrap box or found at the 50% or more off / clearance sales found after the holidays. All the straight pins needed to make the ornaments came from hitting a LOT of dollar stores with great pricing on notions.
The cross stitch fabric for the centers of the ornaments actually came from a dear friend who inherited a needlework stash & had no use for a big stack of Aida cloth. She was happy to give it all to me & thrilled to see it used. Even the styrafoam centers were bought at a big name craft store and less expensive because we used store coupons to lower the cost.
Embroidery floss? Well, that's the ONLY thing I do not skimp on. I use DMC floss all the time, no matter the cost. In reality, it's not that expensive. However, I do only purchase the exact colors I need and try to pick colors that can be used with many fabrics to avoid waste. And always try to hit the store when they go on sale.
