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Make do and Mend

P

poihipi

master brummie
Seeing two pottery hot water bottles had me remembering how my mom would put a house brick in the fire embers then when it was hot would wrap it in thick flannel and tie it up with string. That was my bed warmer.

We also would go to jumble sales to buy old jumpers which would then be unpicked skeined, washed and then knitted into new jumpers. The jumble sales would also give us old coats and skirts to be cut into strips then turned into rag rugs.

I am sure others will have many memories of make do.
 
poihipi I think it was in grained in us not to waste. I often think how clean the streets were years ago in old photo's. I now understand why because nothing was wasted. Paper was burnt along with old wood and broken furniture. Bags saved and used again my Mom had a pile all folded. Bottles were returned. Old clothes bedding and curtains used to make children's clothes, dusters, cloths or as you say cut into strips. We used old cans for various toys or containers. Saved chocolate boxes to store jewellery, match boxes for treasures. I remember my mother carefully unwrapping birthday and Christmas presents, the paper was ironed and saved. There was very little plastic then. I am sure others have memories too.
 
We were taught how to darn socks. Mind you in those days socks were made of wool not nylon rubbish. We too used to make cloth rugs. The old wool we would do corking. You had an old cotton reel with four nails in the top and with the finished article you would sew together in circles to make place mats.
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Yes I did corking as well good to use up small pieces of wool. My dolls house was made of 4 cardboard boxes and chests of drawers from match boxes. All were covered with bits of wallpaper. Dolls were all knitted and I was able to knit before I went to school.
Mom was very adept at doing fairisle patterns all without patterns.
 
Sorry it shouldn't have been that big. Dad used to buy stick on soles to make the shoes last longer.
 
Hi Jean and Poihipi. I too still darn but only occasionally. I also tailor clothes (only simple jobs). I patch up things, cut off all the buttons and keep them from old clothes. I keep good ribbon lengths for projects. I make things from pre-loved material. I save the the innards (wadding or feathers) from pillows to use in later cushion projects. In fact if I can re-model something I often will, time permitting. But this is not through need as such, but more because I enjoy the task and the feeling that I've re-used something to get extra value out of the original item. I think it's partly about fully appreciating the value of things too. Viv.
 
HI Poliphi
that saying as been a drench on all my life [ make and mend ] thats all i have done all my life 2nd to none
in every think never won any prizes in my life and bought second hand or from bootys and jumble sales
best wishes Astonian;
 
Viv I used to make clothes but have no patience these days. Hi Alan I know you love your booty sales.
 
Mom and nan were thrifty and used to recycle the wool from jumpers and make my dresses. Mom still is and always has whatever item the grandchildren need for their projects, yet her house is much tidier than mine.
I also keep the buttons from worn out clothes, which are usually cut into rags, anything more servicable goes to the charity shop.
We are lucky in Tamworth with the re-cycling and I always have more in the recycle bin than the waste bin, but that says a lot about te amount of packaging in use today.
Sue
 
My husbands father used to put tacks in the bottom of their shoes and his sister hated them. My dresses were mostly made from curtain material as a freind would give mom off cuts how I hated them as a I always felt you could tell what they were although I was probably one of the best dressed at school. I still have a darning mushroom but haven't darned socks for quite awhile.

The many large supermatkets here in NZ charge 10c for each plastic bag to encourage the use of reusable ones.
 
They charge for bags in Wales now so it won't be long before the rest of the UK are charged as well. I now carry a shopping bag, I really am turning into my Mom....he he. I wash out plastic containers and use for the freezer and storing odds and ends. As Sue says, we do have excellent recycling in Tamworth my black bin only goes out once a month now.
 
We recycle most plastic containers for all sorts of things, milk bottles cut part of a side off gives a scoop or watering can. Although we have very few left overs what is gets put out for the birds, a chicken carcass last about 2hrs the all traces are gone.

Currently knitting jumpers for Russian orphans with donated wool.
 
I have always done certain things my mother used to do, such as buy lots of soap and keep it until it is hard, that way it last much much longer, I still save paper bags - they are a rarity these days but they do have them in chemist shops. I have used shopping bags for years - ever since Sainsbury's brought their own out but it makes me feel as if I look like my granny! I don't think I will ever be able to get that picture out of my head, but it means I don't have much in the way of plastic bags to get rid of. It's worth noting that charity shops will also take clothes with holes - those that cannot be used for paint rags, etc, as they sell them on for money. I did not know this until recently. I think when you have been brought up by someone who has been thrifty, you automatically take on their habits. I have always cut off buttons, even though they are often not used again, but my strangest habit (and not at all thrifty really) is to save ribbons. I have no idea why I do it, except I loved ribbons as a child but it was always my sister who had them, not me. I cut off those nasty thin things that are in the shoulders of dresses and jumper - and I keep them! I don't think they have any use, but if anyone knows what I can use them for, I would be grateful to hear because I have lots of them!
 
When we cleaned out my mothers small flat we found enough goods stored I think to survive for years. There were many box's of candles plus bits and pieces from renovations that had no use but years of thrift habit was still there.

I have a big box of buttons that only ever get used once in awhile and a craft box of bits and pieces that I am sure will one day come in handy. Also a husband who has a garage full of things that he believes like us can't be thrown away.
 
Shortie said:
I have always done certain things my mother used to do, such as buy lots of soap and keep it until it is hard, that way it last much much longer, I still save paper bags - they are a rarity these days but they do have them in chemist shops. I have used shopping bags for years - ever since Sainsbury's brought their own out but it makes me feel as if I look like my granny! I don't think I will ever be able to get that picture out of my head, but it means I don't have much in the way of plastic bags to get rid of. It's worth noting that charity shops will also take clothes with holes - those that cannot be used for paint rags, etc, as they sell them on for money. I did not know this until recently. I think when you have been brought up by someone who has been thrifty, you automatically take on their habits. I have always cut off buttons, even though they are often not used again, but my strangest habit (and not at all thrifty really) is to save ribbons. I have no idea why I do it, except I loved ribbons as a child but it was always my sister who had them, not me. I cut off those nasty thin things that are in the shoulders of dresses and jumper - and I keep them! I don't think they have any use, but if anyone knows what I can use them for, I would be grateful to hear because I have lots of them!
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Re. The ribbons Shortie - very Jane Austen. You never know when you'll need to re-trim that summer hat, or edge that afternoon dress!! I too love ribbons and surprisingly I use a lot either for trimming presents in a very extravagant way or for sewing projects. Kirsty Allsop would approve of course, although I sometimes think her projects drift towards the whacky! Viv.
 
When I was about 14 I needed a new mac but we could not afford one. One of my aunts gave me one of her old macs, it was white and quite smart, but the buttons were on the wrong (ladies) side. I wasn't too pleased, it didn't do much for my teenage image but I had to wear it.
I can also remember helping my mom to unpick woollen jumpers and also making rugs by pushing short pieces of cloth through material using something we called a 'bodger'....
 
Yes we did the rugs using what I think we're called sugar sacks, heard the name badger but I knew it as a latch hook. Know how you would have felt about the mac as I always felt everyone was laughing at my curtain material dress's.

I was fortunate to have an aunty who saved coupons for cadburys chocolate (black market I was told) so we saved the wrappers and made pictures by painting black outlines on glass and putting the coloured silver wrappers behind giving a picture on the front. Did anyone else do that? Not sure if I explained it very well hope so.
 
Mom made cushion covers for the (second-hand) settee from blue sugar sacks. They were fine until you looked on the other side and they said something like BSC. It would have been "shabby chic" now!!
Nan could make lovely little skirts from Grandad's old trousers!!
rosie.
 
Poihipi, post 16 reminds me of clearing hubbys nans house out - there were piles of papers, folded bags, bags of folded rags , all tied up with lengths of old stockings! There was enough Betterware stuff to set up a stall, we think she felt guilty if she didn't order anything! As well as that, nan always had top to tail sheets on her bed, I used to think that she couldn't afford to get new ones, but when we emptied her ottoman, it was full of brand new flannelette and Egyptian cotton sheets!
Everything was wrapped and tied up, all the undies were in bags in the dressing table, so tidy and easy to select. Stil miss her now, from 7 years ago.
Sue
 
Yes sistersue when we opened the wardrobe door we found lots of clothes with M&S tags still on them never worn. Apparently whenever she had a little win at bingo she would go and treat herself I suppose she must have been saving them for a rainy day. I wonder how our children will see us in years to come.
 
I once met this man, a retired tailor who had an overcoat that he had unpicked and sewn back together again inside out.

He told me that cloth for overcoat was quite expensive, and said that people would often have this done once the material started to look shabby.

It quite interesting reading all these stories, I hear young trendy people who think that they invented recycling; they have not lived yet.
 
That's a good idea to reverse the material and re-assemble it again. I've done it for shirt collars and cuffs, but think doing it for a coat would be a challenge! Viv.
 
Hi Viv, yes I bet it was quite a task to turn a coat insideout.

I can remember my grandmother take a worn linen sheet, cutit in half up the centre, and then sew it together by the outside edges.

A few years later she would then turn these into pillowcases and they would finally be cut op and end up as handkerchiefs
 
I was always quite good with a needle and as a teenager made most of my own clothes. The bits of material left were used for patchwork, cloths, cushion covers and dressing table doilies. I have turned shirt collars and cuffs and made my boys jean type rompers when they were very small from our old jeans. I made cot sheets and draw sheets out of old sheets I just cut the worn piece out and turned them up. I could do blanket stitch so made cot blankets as well. I enjoyed doing it and got great satisfaction making something for nothing.
 
Yes Morturn and Wendy. Some people call it thrifty, but I like to call it resourceful! Takes a bit of imagination, a little skill and time. And what a reward. Viv
 
And some pride in turning out something useful - the same if you made your own clothes. Mom and nan both did dressmaking as did hubbys nan - she went to classes for it and right up until she died kept in tough with her classmates.I can remember at school, in needlework, we had to make a pinafore dress and it had to be in a heavy knit jersey type material. For some reason, I decided that a nice plum colour would be smart, but as a small dumpy teenager - much the same as now but older! - mom knew that the pattern would have to be altered to fit me, so she and nan altered the pateern by pinning it in the relevant places. Sadly the very opinionated needlework teacher didn't agree and demanded that the pins were revoed causing a big row, she won and when the tunic was finished was nearly to the floor and all the shapings were way to low, so it clung hips from the waist shapings etc. To add insult to injury we had to model them in the end of term show, I tried everything to get out of it! Many years later, said needlework teacher was on my clinic,and was a little bolshy to say the least, saying she knew better, couldn't resist reminding her that she proved that wrong in her needlework lessons - and she apologised, and listened to what I was telling her in clinic.
I didn't do much dressmaking after that incident, but can knit and embroider reasonably well, my daughter has just started to learn to knit, so there's hope yet.
Sue
 
Lovely story Sue just the sort of teacher I hated. My needlework teacher was lovely. I never had a problem and finished projects early. So she let me help my friend who found needlework difficult which, paid off as my friend helped me in maths!!
 
In my last tear at school we had to make a pair of shorts like skirts, well every time I took mine up to the needle work teacher she would tell me undo the tacking or stitching which meant by the end of term I had only finished 4 seams. I told her I would take it home and finish during the holidays. Next term she asked to see it, told me to unpick it all I refused and was caned on both hands. Next lesson was English made a mess of my book so incurred more penalty points and later was canned again and I was a girl. Despite this I went on to make all the family clothes so couldn't have been that bad a sewer.

I made all our curtains and even re-covered settes and chairs. Lets hope the younger generation never loose those skills in this throw away susciety.
 
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