One of the trickier components of sewing using these thrifted items, however, is knowing how much fabric there actually is there, and therefore what you can sew with it. I know from experience that I can sew one skirt and and one pair of matching leggings for my three-year-old from one adult-sized stretchy cotton or acrylic sweater, but is the queen-sized sheet that I picked up at a yard sale last summer enough to make matching pajama pants for me, my husband, and both our girls?

Questions like that are much easier to answer when you know the standard yardages for standard-sized sheets.

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Although I have long been stalking Spoonflower (a fabric-on-demand printing service), checking out their Fabric of the Week, even subscribing to their promotional emails, I have never bought their services.

I have ideas, of course–fabric printed with the comic strip that my husband and I write, fabric printed with the rainbow patchwork pattern that I painstakingly piece together from a number of fabrics to make my crayon rolls, fabric printed with my pattern design for my dinosaur stuffies, etc. But these ideas have, so far, all remained in my head.

Until today, at least. Today I’m making at two of my design dreams reality. For free.

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Editor’s note: The opinions in this post do not reflect those of Crafting a Green World as a whole or other writers on the CAGW team.

It can be hard to be an indie crafter these days. Perhaps Oilily will steal your designs and resell them as cheap knock-offs, perhaps somebody will smear your name all over the Internet because you disagree about the usage of the word craftivism, perhaps someone else will comment on one of your blog posts and call you retarded because you object to wool felt.

And then, just when you’re feeling better about all of that, Etsy will steal some of your hard-earned money.

What’s up with that, Etsy?

Now, I understand that technology is complicated. And I understand that Internet Explorer, although it’s the standard browser that most people, especially the internet un-savvy (Hi, mom!), use, basically blows. And I understand that when Internet Explorer updates, or Bill Gates sneezes, or the stars misalign, web sites tend to go all to hell for a while until some other programmer writes a fix.

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Whatever your reasons, there’s no reason to necessarily shop at a big-box store’s web site; not only are there tons of sites for Fabulous Fabrics and Yearn-Worthy Yarns, there are loads of awesome craft stores, some selling supplies and some selling handmade goods, who would looooove to have your business:

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