20
How to
...
How to craft on a small
budget of only £10
C
rafting on a budget is
upsetting. Let’s face it, we
would all rather have the
money to buy those expensive
and flashy tools or materials for
our craft. But crafting on a budget
doesn’t have to be a bad thing - it
can simply just be a way of getting
the practical and necessary stuff
for your craft that is affordable.
Cheap can be practical
D
on’t be afraid to buy very
cheap items; they can turn
out to be more durable
than expensive items. Why buy an
expensive zip for those trousers
you are sewing? It’s sometimes not
worth it. Yet, when buying cheap
materials, be careful to check what
you are actually buying - it may
be less attractive or not the colour
you wanted, but if it’s used to line
a bag or something similar - ask
yourself, who will see it?
Only buy what you use
S
ometimes the item you want
in the shop is more expensive
than online, but at other
times you may find the only way
to save money online is to bulk
buy. My advice is don’t buy more
than you will use. If those three
balls of yarn you wish to buy cost
£4 in a shop, but you get six balls
of the same yarn for £6 online you will save money.
But think differently, if you are
only going to use three balls, then
you won’t be saving money at all.
Instead you will be spending £2
extra on three more balls of yarn
that you will not use and you do
not need.
- recycling and reusing is one of
the many ways in which she crafts
on a budget. This is harder to do
for crafting jewellery and other
crafts that use more expensive
materials, but it can be done. Jo
Southall (pages 4 to 5) re-uses
some of the beads from jewellery
she has created but doesn’t wear
for commission-based items. For
paper craft, why not use recycled
paper? Even if you are a crossstitch based crafter, there is always
room for re-using and recycling.
Buying online
Re-use, recycle
R
emember Christina Elvin
on pages 12 and 13? If you
don’t, go and check out her
story. But for those of you who do
I
nternet, eBay and Amazon:
there is such a huge online
shopping market where you
can buy objects and materials and
get it delivered to you without
leaving the comfort for your
home. But, more often than not,
this can be more costly (although
visiting the shops can be more
Photo of zip courtesy of Isobel T, Creative Commons Licence; photo of beads/jewellery courtesy of Mauro Cateb, Creative Common