Presents for Cheap – If You Can Sew

Ah, the holiday presents frenzy in the midst of economic hard times. A lot of us are feeling the squeeze–what are we to do? The good folks over at You Can Make This are here to help–kind of.

Specifically, the DIY site has launched a Thrifty 50 challenge, where you can follow along the escapades of 50 cheapskate over-acheiving black-belts in crafts who each appear to have devoted an entire room of their house to a "stash" of fabric, ribbon, and assorted other craft materials, making it deceptively easy for them to whip out clothes, bookmarks, centerpieces, and "door hangers" for practically no cost. (Am I the only one who's never heard of "door hangers"? They appear to be little pillows hung from ribbons on your doorknob for some reason. I don't get it. See picture.)

To be fair, some of the simpler, more useful ideas they're churning out do seem within the reach of a mere mortal like me, and some even seemed fun, but I still have to admit to being skeptical of the "super-cheap yet Martha Stewart" ethos.

First of all, where in the world do they find the time for this? And secondly, the gift lists many of the 50 are trying to fill seem to contain not only multiple kids, but extended lists of in-laws and even kids' teachers (really!).

In recognition of these, um, ambitious, obligations, apparently participants don't actually have to come in under $50 total, as long as "some portion" of their gifts are under $50. Which means . . . what, exactly? That you're at least spending under $50 per gift? With all that time put in, I sure hope so. Otherwise it's a bit like New York magazine's idea of cheap. To be fair, reported actual costs per project so far seem to mostly come in well under $5, not counting depleted "stash," so even if the rules are lenient, these folks do knw how to stretch a dollar.

As for me, I'm torn: I like the idea of handmade gifts, repurposing things you already have, and not feeling guilty over not buying expensive crap. And I love the feeling of having just the right thing for someone. I do expect to be cobbling together a few pieces of decidedly unfancy dollhouse furniture for my kid this year, and I might pick up a few other ideas from these sewing ninjas.

On the other hand, I'm not sure that hanging on to the idea that we need to have the perfect, special, professional-quality thing for everyone we know plus the mailman, even when we're broke, is less stressful or less distracting from enjoying the holiday season than the mall-warrior approach. To me, I think "thrifty" is going to mean downplaying the presents mandate to its proper, small, part of the festivities.