The Touchwood Project

Thanksgiving’s over and today’s “Black Friday”, the day in America hordes descend on the shops in an extravaganza of Christmas spending.

Crowds line up before dawn, eager for bargains, their credit cards at the ready. It’s the biggest shopping day of the year.

At long last, the doors to Wal-Mart open

I’ll give that a miss this year because as much as I’ve enjoyed shopping in the past, I enjoy making stuff more.

So today I’m going to remake Black Friday — and anything that grim sounding cries out for a makeover — into “Green Friday”, the day where we start making our own green Christmas presents.

To help the holiday take hold, I’ll be running a series of tutorials to help you make your own. I’ll share with you what I’ve uncovered in my quest to make 20 presents with £20.

Here are the requirements. Gifts must:

• cost as little as possible
• be environmentally responsible
• handmade
• be fun and easy to make

The best projects made easy

There are a million craft and DIY blogs out there, so my job isn’t to repeat that.

Instead, I’ll be gathering the most fun and useful projects I’ve found, as well as using a lot of photos to show you how to do them yourself.

If these tutorials can help you feel a little less stressed and enjoy the season a little more, I’ll be happy.

What kind of projects?

I’ll be focusing the projects mainly on:

• felting
• knitting
• sewing and
• potions (as in herbal concoctions and soaps)

ANY of these projects could be done by someone who has no previous experience.

Your help, please

My goal is to help people actually do the projects, rather than just read about it and say “That’s nice.” So I’d really appreciate it if you would share your thoughts on how to make these tutorials better.

Make multiples

A word of caution for those who’ve never made their own gifts before: it will take time. The shortest project, Potted Herbs, takes about 15 minutes, but many take several hours.

The key here is to make multiples.

Once you’ve made one present, make another one since it will be much faster this time. Watch a good film or listen to an audiobook at the same time. Not sure what you’ll do with five tea coseys? Save one or two for someone’s housewarming or birthday — you’ll be grateful you did.

Upcoming project: The Felted Sweater Bag

Felted sweater bag

My first project requires an old woolen sweater, so dig through your clothing (or anyone else’s) and see if there’s one that’s not getting worn anymore. Or head to the charity shop and root around.

Here’s to Green Friday.

Tags: Christmas, Environment

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