Preparing for Winter

elliewild

i'd love to be able to make a patchwork quilt or knit - can anyone teach me in time for xmas? ive been inspired at thread and am going shopping for jumpers, de-icer (car), socks, quilts/covers and maybe material for draught excluders - them i can make! would it work to re-line your curtains - to make them thicker and keep heat in? i havent got a carpet at the mo which is making the house cold. i seem to get massive draughts from the kitchen - the back door and no radiators. - any suggestions?

i bought some of that draught proof slips for door frames from B&Q not sure if they work - i suppose evry bit helps

elliewild

since i havent got a carpet i also took the opportunity of buying damp proof paint for the floor. we have damp problems but cannot afford anyway of solving them. so far the paints working well (b&q) hope it still makes a difference when the carpets down!

boyfriend wants to get velcro on edges of windows so that theres no gap between window and curtain - might keep some heat in - maybe slightly unsightly though!

any tips of damp/crumbly houses - let me know!

mardatha

I wish I'd got bubblewrap for my back door and window --my kitchen is BALTIC !

BallandChain

goldcroft10 wrote: »

Have just bought a Slumberland electrically heated throw from Argos. Expensive at £69.99, but pence to run. It is designed to wrap around you whilst whatching TV or whatever. Looked on internet, but only Slumberland seems to produce one, which is a surprise.

Hi Goldcroft. It's a shame you hadn't seen my post here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14496869&postcount=1413

as I'd mentioned the heated throws at Lakeland. They are £10 cheaper. How is the throw? I'm still debating whether to get one.

bennett2kuk

Just because it gets cold doesn't mean you're more likely to become ill. If anything germs and bacteria breed much slower in colder climates so it's actually warm weather which encourages illness.

The only thing I'm doing to prepare at the moment is to keep putting money on our Asda savings card every week when we go shopping. Come Christmas we should get a good few weeks worth of shopping for "nothing". Including the dreaded slog around the store on Christmas week. May get in ahead this year and book a delivery instead of queuing for hours like usual.

We're having a smaller christmas this year in terms of spending on each other anyway. And being a very strong atheist I'm a bit of a hypocrtite for celebrating it at all. But having actually missed out christmas for a couple of years running once you find tyhat there's nothing to look forward to and the dreary winter just rolls into spring.

Here's to a nice, cold and snowy mid-winter family gathering festival everyone.

Quasar

Last night was rather cold here and although I have a fleecy blanket under the quilt so that it feels warm and cosy on my body, the pillowcase felt chilly. So I got out an old jumper earmarked for the charity shop and pulled it over the pillow (sleeves tucked beneath) and boy did it feel warm! :A

mardatha

I think that's what xmas is, was, and needs to be Bennet. A spot of light in the darkest time of the year.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

mardatha wrote: »

I think that's what xmas is, was, and needs to be Bennet. A spot of light in the darkest time of the year.

I think so too,and this year we need it more than others.Since the girls grew up and left home I've never been one to celebrate christmas but this year I think I'll do something,even if it's not entirely traditional.I've decided to be quite frugal though and not go overboard,just make things special over the holiday period.I think we all need something to look forward too this year.

beltainebabe

elliewild wrote: »

i'd love to be able to make a patchwork quilt or knit - can anyone teach me in time for xmas?

It's not too difficult to learn to make a basic quilt - if you've got a bit of sewing knowhow? You just need loads of scraps of fabric, big enough so you can make squares of at least 6", though the bigger the square the less stitching you have to do! You can use things like old clothes that are outgrown, old pillowcases etc. I once got some sample sheets for free from a fabric shop that they didn't want that were big enough for patches!:money: So basically you cut out loads of sqaures all the same size, (rough guide 80 x 10" squares if you want to make a double bed cover, or 42 x 10" squares for a kids cotbed size cover).

When you've cut them all, take the first two squares you want to use, lay them face to face and stitch down one side leaving about 1/2" seam. Then take another pair of squares and do the same, then take the two pairs, lay them face to face and stitch down one side again and you end up with a square of four patches. Keep making squares of four patches until you are ready to stitch each square together.

Or you can make long lines of patches before stitching the lines together instead of making them into squares, if that makes sense?

When you've got your patches sewn together, you need something to fill the quilt (normally known as batting) you can buy cheap polyester stuff from most fabric shops, and then you need something to back the quilt with, an old bedsheet is good, or any other large piece of cotton or similar you can find. (I'm not sure the best way to do this as I've never got to this stage, I've only ever finished off patchwork trousers before!)

As for knitting, slightly more tricky to learn, also expensive as you'd have to lay out for the wool, unless you have any laying around. A great thing to try first is a scarf, you can create a really good looking one if you knit in the most basic stitch in really chunky wool on big needles. This page has some quite good basic instructions, but still it is tricky to get the hang of it at first. Let me know if you want a pattern for a really basic chunky scarf and I can post one for you

Hope some of that helps.... whoops I've just read it back and I've written a small essay

CravingSaving

Talking about keeping warm in bed (I am sure we were somewhere here recently!), I have a sheepskin style blanket that I put on top of my mattress, underneath my sheet. I heard somewhere that a blanket underneath is worth two on top. Anyone else agree/disagree with this? I am rarely cold at night, though I have just put a hot water bottle in the bed to make it cosy for when I clamber in in a minute!!