Buy Nothing Year

Today is the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Bros. and the ensuing economic downturn that has affected just about everyone I know here in New York in some way. WNYC, New York City's public radio station, is taking time out from their 24-7 recession coverage to commemorate the occasion with a BBC-produced radio drama on Lehman Bros. Fascinating...and totally a bummer. While it does get depressing hearing non-stop about how, well, depressed America's economy is, I love hearing more about the growing trend toward thriftiness, made necessary by the recession.

Like No Impact Man, who is trying to do just that -- motivated by environmental concerns, but obviously also saving money and resources in the process, and W. Hodding Carter of Gourmet magazine's Extreme Frugality blog (his family of six is living within their modest means by doing all sorts of cool things, like raising chickens and bartering lawyer work for firewood).

Most people have heard of Adbusters' annual post-U.S Thanksgiving protest against consumerism Buy Nothing Day. Well, we've had a Buy Nothing Year. And not as a form of protest. It's not a noble act: We simply cannot afford to waste anything. But buying nothing begets creativity. I used yoga mats to create a soft playspace for Lucy; I unraveled a cardigan I mostly knit a few years ago so I could use the yarn to make fall hats; I now grocery shop according to what's on sale, and then plan my menu (this I learnt from the Extreme Frugality guy; it's so simple, yet the idea has alluded me until recently) which is how I ended up making the most delicious carrot muffins and carrot soup last week -- carrots were on sale, three bags for $2. I've also learned how to walk away from things I covet without feeling a longing that has in the past led me to purchase things I later regret.

But the most fun I'm having is making things for Lucy out of old stuff that was destined for the donation bin. Take this T-shirt and skirt, from which I made the dress Lucy is wearing in the top picture.


In the process, I discovered how easy it is to make my old T-shirts that no longer fit (for reasons I need not elaborate on, ahem) into toddler-size tees. I simply laid one of Lucy's T-shirts on top of mine, tracing the shoulder seam to fit her. I then laid the sleeve of her T-shirt on top of my sleeve, and traced a baby-size sleeve on the big one. Cut them all out, and then serge the baby-size sleeves into the new baby-size Tee, and it's done. (This one is short because it was sewn into the dress, but you get the idea).

DIY Mei Tai!

There is nothing like the magic of a baby wrap or carrier. Your little one has been fussing for what feels like (or has been) hours on end, when you finally think to strap her into her carrier. Walk around the block or bounce on your birth ball, and voila: sweet, sleeping baby. Some people use washing machines, strollers or a drive in the car for the same effect, but I love the cuddly closeness of the carrier. Plus we live in New York City and don't have a car or a washing machine, and use our stroller sparingly due to the MTA's spotty elevator service.

My husband and I have relied for months on our Action Baby carrier (which Ryan always says makes it sound like our daughter is a spy or something). It's a soft, structured carrier that can be worn on the front or the back, baby facing inward. But at seven months old, Lucy is getting heavy and I wanted to try a Mei Tai. Also I thought the classic Chinese fabric carrier would be cute in the right print. Since I carry her so much, I deserve a back-up, right? The Mei Tai is simple: a rectangle of fabric with four straps, two for your waist and two to cross over your shoulders and tie around your waist. Soooo....how hard could it be to make one?

It turns out, not hard at all! Even someone with the most basic of sewing skills can make one easily. Though you will be carrying your baby in this, so I would advise against hand sewing. And like my dad, a sailor, always says, "If you can't tie a knot, tie a lot," i.e. sew the crap out of your mei tai, reinforcing it and then reinforcing it some more. You want this thing to be sturdy. After all, you'll be putting your baby in it!

My new Mei Tai is so comfy, and my seven-month-old, 18-pound daughter feels very well supported, hugged on all sides by the soft cotton fabric. While a Mei Tai looks a little like a four-legged fabric octopus when it's not on, I found it very easy to strap Lucy to my front — easier in fact, than our Action Baby Carrier, which requires reaching up behind yourself to adjust a buckle across your back. The only drawback is the straps are so long they dangle on the floor, gathering dust while you adjust it.

To get started, you need:

2 yards of heavy cotton broadcloth, twill, denim, etc.
1/4 yard each of cotton in a print you'd like wearing often (optional)
1/2 yard polyester batting for extra-soft straps
1/2 yard interfacing (optional)
Matching thread

In designing this Mei Tai, I thought about how a wide bra strap provides better support. Following that principle, I wanted to make my mei tai's straps nice and wide, distributing the weight of my baby across my back, shoulders, and hips.

Just as I don't always follow recipes to the letter, I'd advise you to consider how long you need your straps to be and amend this pattern based on that. I'm short but have wide-ish hips, so my straps are all quite long. If you're really tall or larger through the shoulders, you might want to lengthen them in your pattern. Better to make them too long. You can always shorten them later. I pinned a tape measure at my shoulder and wrapped it across my back and around my waist to determine how long I needed my straps to be.

Getting ready:

From your broadcloth/main fabric, you will cut out the following pieces:
-2 shoulder straps, each 8 inches by 72 inches or longer (you will be folding the straps in half lengthwise, so they will only be 3.5 inches wide in the end)
-2 waist straps, each 8 inches by 42 inches (again, you will be folding the straps in half lengthwise, so they will only be 3.5 inches wide in the end)
-1 waist band, 10 inches by 36 inches (waist band will also be folded in half lengthwise, giving you a 4-inch-high waistband)
-1 body panel, 17 inches by 15 inches (or bigger)

Fold your fabric and cut pieces along the fold like this:

To mark the pieces for cutting, you can use masking tape to create straight lines along your measurements. Or cut pattern pieces first from pattern paper, newsprint, or old wrapping paper. Pin, and cut. (But always do like carpenters do: measure twice, cut once!!)

I wanted my Mei Tai to be pretty as well as functional — and reversible. So I cut out two more panels slightly longer than the body panel cut in the broadcloth: 20" by 15". Cut two slightly smaller pieces of interfacing — about 19" by 14". We will come back to these pieces at the end.

Lastly, cut out three pieces of batting to add extra squishy softness to your shoulder straps and waistband:

-2 shoulder strap pieces, each 7 & 1/2" by 33"
-1 waistband piece, 7 & 1/2" by 34"

The thickness of the batting I bought meant I needed to fold it in half to get a nice soft strap. If your batting is thicker, you may choose to cut pieces 3.5 inches wide instead.

NOW, I worked on all my straps first, so they would be ready to attach to the main body as needed. Moving along....

Making the waist straps:

For the waist straps, simply fold in half lengthwise, right sides facing. Iron and pin. Sew together, giving yourself 1/2-inch seam allowance. Use your pinking shears on the edges so you won't worry about fraying.

To create a tapered end, sew to the edge from the top corner at an angle. Trim along seam with pinking shears.



Turn right side out and iron. Set aside for now.

Making the shoulder straps:

The shoulder straps are slightly more complicated than the waist straps because you will be lining part of each strap with batting to make them softer at the point where they cross over your shoulders. Mmmm, comfy.

First, fold each strap in half lengthwise, right sides facing, and iron. Sew together half way along the length. Turn right side out and press, folding in edges of unsewn strap, like so:

Fold your batting in half lengthwise and sandwich it between the two layers of broadcloth. Fold edges in, press, pin and topstitch.


At the end of the strap opposite the batting, turn in the edges and top stitch. Set aside for now.

The body panel:

If you're lucky enough to have a serger, serge all around your body panel to finish the edges. Otherwise, turn all edges under, press and sew.

Attaching the body panel to the waistband:

Fold the waistband in half lengthwise, wrong sides facing, and iron. Unfold and press in 1/2-inch on top and bottom. Now fold your piece of batting in half lengthwise, and sandwich it between the two layers of broadcloth.



Fold edges under a 1/2 inch, lining them up. But before you pin together, lay your body panel down on the waistband at the midpoint. Layer the batting and top of waistband on top, then pin. Topstitch, reinforcing at edges.

Attaching waist straps to waistband:

Turn in open edges of waistband. Iron. Now tuck the waist strap 3-4 inches into the opening, and pin. Top stitch, and reinforce by sewing a rectangle with an X in the middle like this:



Repeat on the other side.

Attaching shoulder straps:

Turn down top corners of body panel a couple inches and press. Lay bottom end of shoulder strap (the end with the batting) on top of the folded-down corner. Make sure the strap overlaps the body panel by about 3.5-4 inches. You want a lot of overlap so that you can reinforce, and then reinforce some more. This part of your Mei Tai needs to be strong!



Pin and topstitch, again making a box with an X in the middle. This creates a really strong attachment (like you and your baby in this carrier! Aww....).

Reinforcing body panel with your printed fabric:

OK. You could stop here and have a perfectly fine Mei Tai. But if you go the extra mile here, you will have a pretty and reversible Mei Tai! Who doesn't want that?

Attach your interfacing to the wrong side of the printed panels, following the manufacturer's instructions. I always use fusible interfacing — just lay a damp washcloth on top and press at highest temperature. You could skip the interfacing if you don't have it or think it's needed. I like to use it because the interfacing makes the fabric a little stiffer and more sturdy, also less see-through.



Press the bottom edge of the panel under 1/2 inch, then press sides under 1/2 inch, up to where the straps are attached to the main body panel. Lay one printed panel right side down, and lay the main panel of your Mei Tai on top. Now lay your other printed panel on top of that, and line up the three edges. You may need to re-press some edges to make it all line up properly. Pin and topstitch all three sides, reinforcing at corners. Fold under top corners and topstitch all around.



After I started working on my mei tai and this tutorial, I realized there are numerous other patterns out there on other blogs. Sometimes reinventing the wheel is satisfying. But here are a few others at Jan Andrea, Make Baby Stuff.com, Walter and Veronica.

Use common sense and test your carrier each time before you put your child in it, tugging on the straps and testing the body for holes, pulls, broken stitches, etc. Give yourself generous seam allowances and use pinking shears (or your serger) around all edges to help avoid fraying at the seams. And if you wash your mei tai in the washer, double-check afterward to make sure it's still safe.

Mei Tai done!

Have I mentioned my baby is a model? Not just as seen here modeling the new Mei Tai I finished sewing today. She's also in this month's Parents magazine. Page 139.

So this Mei Tai is awesome if I do so say myself. Nice thick, padded straps, just perfect for chewing on (so I am told by my daughter).

I'm working on a tutorial, which I should hopefully post in a day or two. It's already mostly written, but some things need to be amended, as I found some easier ways to do things with my 2nd, now almost done!

I hear my model waking up, so gotta run.

Extremely frugal and Extreme Frugality

So I was listening to the WNYC today as I often do when feeding the baby, and Leonard Lopate was talking to a writer from Maine who is blogging for Gourmet magazine on the topic of Extreme Frugality — a topic to which I can relate. I know, I was like, "Wah? This topic seems incongruous with Gourmet magazine," but a big part of being extremely frugal is feeding your family on the cheap so I guess it fits.

Anyway, the writer, W. Hodding Carter, says he decided it was time for his family to start living within their means (after years of accruing credit card debt to live a lifestyle which they could not afford). And with humble means that means shopping at discount food stores, baking all their own bread and no eating out.

I'm hoping a book deal is in the works for him, in the vein of A Year of Living Biblically. I'm not sure which is harder: following the hundreds of wacky tenets in the Bible, or trying to feed, clothe and house a family of six on $41,000 a year while trying to pay off significant credit card debt. Hmmm...makes me feel a little bit better about our situation.

So among the things we have done to kickstart our extreme frugality — begun last summer after Lucienne's birth, which coincided unfortunately with the recession — are:
-We switched to store-brand everything. Whole Foods' brand is really cheap and still good. Target brand diapers are way cheap. (Sorry environment, but we share our laundry with a couple hundred other people and I just can't put poopy diapers in there. Bad karma.)
-I box-die my hair now.
-And get my hair cut by an apprentice stylist. (He's so awesome though I have to tip like I'm paying much more for my cut.)
-No eating out. Ever.
-I drink Cafe Bustelo. The best and cheapest espresso at $2 a can.
-We started eating greens after my friend Marcy showed me how to cook them. I can't believe it took me 30 years to get into kale, collard greens and chard. Greens are cheap yet so nutritious.
-Blogspot blog = free!
-We got baby photos at Olan Mills photography studio for free with coupon!
-I make soup to use up every last piece of fresh produce we buy. I like to play it like a game called The Mother Hubbard Challenge: Use up everything, all of it, in some dish.
-No more magazine subscriptions.
-No more Netflix.
-No more new clothes, shoes or anything we already have one of.
-We joined a listserve for neighbourhood parents who swap baby stuff.
-A purse works fine as a diaper bag.
-A blanket works well as a changing pad.
-Baby socks do double-duty as mittens.
-And "Dry-clean only" really means hand wash and hang to dry.

Our biggest extravagance is DVR. I don't know if I could go back to watching normal TV — even upon threat of starvation.

In his radio interview, Carter mentioned a NY Times recipe for No-Knead bread, which he makes every day (I guess with four kids you go through a loaf a day). I found the recipe here, where one blogger proved a four-year-old can make it. The secret is time — lots of it — and you don't have to get your hands dirty. There's not much I hate more than kneading, so I am going to give this a try.

No. Sleeves. 'Til Brooklyn....

Is it just me, or do Americans get served jury duty way more often than we do in Canada? My husband has served once already and received a notice today in the mail. At our mommy-daddy-baby group several of the moms talked about also serving recently. But I have never heard of anyone I know ever being called to serve jury duty in Canada. Nor have I ever done so.

Anyway, I'm working on a bunch of spring/summer dresses for my upcoming launch of an Etsy store. Today was supposed to be sleeve day (I hate sleeves!) but I unexpectedly ran out of thread so am spending my baby's naptime cleaning up my sewing room (I can't cook without creating a disaster in the kitchen, and I can't sew without strewing thread all through the apartment).

That picture above is of a hawk in Tompkins Square Park (Lower East Side) on Monday.