Thrifty Gifts for Your Sorority Sisters

No matter what organization or chapter you are a part of, chances are at some point you will be required to (or will want to) purchase gifts for your sisters. There are many stores that sell licensed Panhellenic merchandise, either locally or online, but as nice as these items are they can be quite expensive. You can save money, and add a personal touch to gifts, by making gifts for your sisters instead.

Letters

Probably the best gift you can get for any member of a Greek organization is a nice lettered sweatshirt or t-shirt. This functional gift allows your sister (or brother!) to showcase both their pride in their organization, and their personality. Purchasing sewn letters, however, is often very expensive, and it is often much quicker and cheaper to make your own.

Start by buying a plain sweatshirt, t shirt or pair of sweatpants from a large discount store like Wallmart or Kmart. Then purchase a small amount of complementary fabric-you don't need much! If the letters are for casual wear you can get fun fabric that says something about your sister or brother. For example, my little sister loves her dog, so I made her letters out of paw print fabric.

Then, get some contact paper (HeatNBond works well) and iron the fabric onto a piece of it. Carefully trace and cut out your letters, then iron them onto the clothing. Last but not least, carefully use a sewing machine to sew around the edges of the letters. You can do this with either single layer or double layer letter designs.

If you're not crafty, an alternative might be to screen print letters onto garments. Most local stores will do this for under 10.00$.

Blankets

If you can cut and tie a knot, you can do this project! Simply go to a fabric store and purchase a few meters of fleece fabric (2-3 will do). Make sure you purchase the exact same amount of fabric in 2 different (yet complementary) colors. Take the fabric home, and lay both pieces flat on top of each other on your kitchen floor. Cutting both pieces at once, cut 7 inch squares out of each corner. Next cut 7 inch strips in 1 in intervals all the way around the fabric. Finally, tie each strip top strip to the one cut directly under it. When all the strips are tire you will have a pretty, custom fleece blanket.

Tote bags

Make your sister a cute, personal bag she can use to lug around her school books! You can purchase plain tote bags cheaply at craft stores, then decorate them with puffy paint, fabric markers, buttons, ribbons or patches. You can purchase iron on transfer paper and include a photo of a memorable moment, or iron on an image of your house's mascot.

Other Ideas

For about 4.00$ you can buy painting pens at craft stores. These can be used to decorate anything from barware, to picture frames, to coffee mugs, to wooden paddles. You can purchase all these things relatively cheap, and then personalize them with things that will be special to your sister.