I love the idea of creating a handmade home.  So when it was time to celebrate Martin’s birthday while we were in Germany, I knew I had to incorporate some sort of handmade decor into our celebration.  I guess I feel like handmade is also heart-made, and you all know what a sucker I am for following your heart!

Last year, I made bunting from old newspapers and paint.  (Here’s a recycled newspaper bunting tutorial.)

It was the perfect little touch that could be so fun to make with kids.

This year, I wanted to create something a little more sustainable that we could use for years and years of birthday parties.

So while Martin was out for the day, I pulled out my sewing machine and bits of fabric, and placed them on our dining table.  I didn’t follow a pattern.  As my mom says, “Katie just starts sewing!”  Well I think about it first and look at a few pictures.  After a few hours, I had this:

I shooed Martin into the bedroom while I strung them across our apartment in Berlin.  You may remember seeing that bunting hanging up in several photos of our house like this one:

Just for fun, I hung a shorter one above my desk, too.  And for now – our bunting has become a permanent fixture in our apartment (unless the folks there take it down!).  I guess I like to think of it as becoming our “welcome home!” banner when we get back to Germany.

If you’d like to make fabric bunting of your own, try googling “how to make fabric bunting” for a slew of styles and tips.  It’s certainly an easy sewing project or no-sew project.

How did your family used to make birthdays special when you were young?  Any strings of streamers or balloons?  How about a heavily-used Happy Birthday! sign or special dinners and delicious cake?  And what do you do to make the birthday boy or girl feel magical?

Yikes!  Have several months really gone by since our latest No New Clothes Challenge update?  Yowzers.

To help refresh your memory, last May Martin and I decided to stop buying new clothes.  The plan was to go the entire summer without buying any clothes.  But then going without new clothes became a habit.  Fast forward to today – over a year later! – and we’re still not buying clothes.

Sure, we’re buying the occasional socks, gloves, or undershirts when they’re needed.  But clothing shopping just for the heck of it?  NOPE.  Clothing shopping because we might like something new?  NOPE.  And you know what?  It’s been the greatest year ever.

• I’m wearing the clothes I have.
• I’m not feeling tempted by what advertisements show I’m supposed to dress like.
• I don’t feel like I’m missing out or out of place.  I’m feeling like me – and that’s the greatest feeling of all.

Many of you have asked different questions about our year without clothes shopping.  Here’s my shot at answering everything.

How did moving overseas TWICE over the last year change The No New Clothes Challenge?

We took our favorite clothes to Germany.  Everything else was boxed up, so we wore the same sweaters constantly.  The biggest question I received was, “Don’t you get tired of wearing the same clothes over and over?” As it turns out, my classmates learning German with me were also wearing the same clothes a lot more often than I ever saw in the US.  I fell in love with their philosophy on clothes:  Wear what you love, and love what you own.  Don’t bother with any other clothes.

Moving back to the US was hard.  We brought our favorite clothes and all our pants back.  But we got here and realized we had no socks in the US, so I had to go buy some.  I’d been darning our socks all winter, so part of me was sad to buy all new.  Another part of me was relieved – no darning for at least a few months!

Do you have a huge stash of clothes we don’t know about?

No way!  I have two average plastic bins worth of clothes in the US plus winter supplies (like a down coat and thick mittens, which are a must around here but not in Berlin) and a few dresses.

One bin is unpacked.  The other I decided to keep for rotating clothes or visiting for something “new” to wear.

When you box up anything for a period of time, you find that you don’t need the stuff.  Or when you do pull it out, it’s so much more interesting to you than if it had been on the bottom of your closet the whole time.

You said you had a July wedding to go to.  What did you do?

I wore something I already had from a friend’s wedding (far right in photo, cracking up).  I also contemplated hemming a bridesmaid dress into an evening dress.

How do you still keep resisting new clothes?

Honestly, not shopping for clothes has become a habit.  I don’t want to go back to that feeling that I’ll never be satisfied with my clothes - which is how I felt when I was always buying clothes to try and fit current fashions.

In some ways, when you aren’t satisfied with your clothes, you start feeling unsatisfied with yourself.

It also helps to have something you’re saving up for.  Each time you’re tempted to buy a little new piece of clothing, think about that dream item.  Would you rather have the new clothes or keep working toward having that dream come true sooner?

Now it’s your turn.  Have you been thinking about clothes and your relationship with them like at our house?  How has your clothing shopping been going this summer?

Catch the whole No New Clothes journey right here – where I spill decisions like only buying handmade jewelry to learning ways to make what I already have feel special, even if I’m the only non-tourist wearing a bright! coat in Germany.