Everything But The Squeal!

Last week, as the snow just kept coming down and my Christmas shopping had barely even begun, I was starting to panic. On a previous post, I mentioned I was looking around the house, eyeing things that I might get away with "giving" as presents, LOL! I mentioned I had two pair of jeans that my oldest son, Ben, had wanted me to hem about...uh...two years ago. I said I was going to hem them right then and there, and wrap them up for Christmas. I'm titling this post "Everything But the Squeal!" I mentioned that phrase to my other son, Adam, and he asked what it meant. Uh oh...I guess that's one of those "old people" phrases! When folks used to butcher pigs, they used all parts of that pig - the head, the snout, the feet - in other words, "Everything But The Squeal," since you just didn't waste things in the olden days. Well, when I cut the bottoms off the jeans (and it was a good 5-6 inches), I paused for half-a-second, and then tossed those scraps in the garbage can under the sewing machine. As I began to wrap the jeans (hahaha), a plan formed in my weird little head. I snatched the scraps right back outta the can, cut a chunk out, frayed it, and made a pocket for the cloth bag I had put the jeans in. Then cut off some of the original hems, spliced them together, and used that for a drawstring.
As I wrapped a few more presents, I became obsessed with using "Everything But The Squeal." And here are the results:

Well, I did wind up with just the tiniest bit of those hems left, but since we STILL haven't had Christmas because of the weather (hopefully tonight), I may just find some odd thing around the house so I can use that last little chunk! Oink, Oink!!!