Make Do and Mend

[Miss Neecerie]

Very interesting article including reprints of a pamphlet.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...op_tips_from_the_age_of_make_do_and_mend.html


So my question for discussion is:

What do -you- do to avoid buying something? Do mend, repair, or figure out cheaper ways to accomplish needed things? Have you remade an article of clothing into something else?

Stories please!

 

[Paisley]

Gardening. It can be very expensive--or very inexpensive.

Last year, I think it was, I had big plans for my yard until I realized I owed the IRS and the State of Colorado a bunch of money. I made do with seed trays and moving some volunteer perennials around the yard. I re-used seed trays from years past and used old panty hose to hold the domes on for the trays I placed outdoors. I had enough plants to give away.

 

[Fletch]

"Today's throwaway society" unfortunately goes hand in hand with today's throwaway merchandise. Many products are either too complex (plastics, electronics) or not durable enough (much clothing) to fix up decently.

To avoid buying things – new things – I shop used or vintage, but that has its limits.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh gee, this brings back memories -- my grandmother used to do a lot of these things. The tip about using magnesia to get out oil stains in clothing is something she often did with my grandfather's work pants -- she'd rub in milk of magnesia with a toothbrush and let it sit, and it'd always wash out clean.

I also like the idea of using "extruded draught preventer" to line the heels of slippy shoes. (We Yanks call it weatherstripping, but by any name it does work, and it's a lot cheaper than the commercially-sold heel pads if you already have a roll of it in the junk drawer.)

Me, I never buy anything new if I can possibly help it -- I've been using the same towels and sheets for almost twenty years, and if they rip I sew them up and keep on using them. When my favorite flannel sheet finally wore out, I cut it down and made it into pillowcases. The apron I'm wearing right now was cut down from one of my grandmother's old housedresses. My living room couch has been reupholstered (in the backyard, by my ex) and the springs have been resprung. All my kitchen chairs have been reglued and repainted. My bedside tables are made out of a repurposed sewing machine cabinet on one side, and a wooden beer crate on the other. The shelves in my office were made from scrap lumber salvaged from a demolition site. I repair holes in rubber-soled shoes with bicycle inner-tube blowout patches. Even my laptop computer is held together by an elaborate duct-tape patch after the hinges broke.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do -- or do without!" -- that's how I was raised, and that's how I live.

 

[The Lonely Navigator]

I am the type to mend (or recycle). There's enough garbage inside (and outside) of landfills...I do my best to not throw something away.

Prien

 

[ShooShooBaby]

i'm a pretty master reducer, reuser and recycler.

some things that have happened in my household lately - paperboard coffeecan has been turned into a knitting needle holder; clear plastic boxes from trader joes fruit (i have a hookup there - i don't buy my fruit wrapped in plastic) have become seed starter trays, a punctured bike tube became a liner so they next one won't get punctured so easily; a piece of old wire mesh became a compost sifter; 2 food-grade buckets were purchased at the goodwill bins to hold chicken feed and catfood; my chickens have turned scraps, spoiled food, and pulp from a friends juicer into eggs; we reused bamboo poles (some rescued from the wood waste management place!), found bricks, and old cinder blocks hidden in the overgrown vegetation in our yard to enclose our mulch bed into a nifty gardening spot; my neighbor's grass clippings bulked up our mulch bed; etc. i'm moving to a new house, and i'm thinking about finding a doghouse to alter and use as the new chicken coop, instead of building one from scratch. and then there is the indoor stuff!

we mend clothing, use sheets and towels till they wear out, turn unmendable socks or sweater arms into arm or legwarmers, and i have an ongoing project knitting worn-out tshirts into a rug. we reuse kitchen packaging as much as is safe/practical, reduce paper useage through cloth napkins and towels, buy food in bulk when possible (at the co-op or through a friend's buying club, and use our own bags when we shop.

i've found there are very few things you can NOT get free or at least used for extremely cheap, if you're patient! freecycle and criagslist are your FRIENDS


lizzie, booze crates are good for EVERYTHING, aren't they! for me, wine boxes have been flower boxes, nightstands, bookshelves, moving boxes, and we even use one to keep the chickens' water dispensers off the floor of the coop! again, there's that trader joes hookup working for me...

 

[Elaina]

I'm cheap and with one of us being home to take care of kids...there's a lot of that.

Where do you want me to begin?

 

[Fletch]

I bet none of you can get yellowing out of white pillow cases. Not my white pillow cases anyway.

 

[Kimberly]

I love to sew so don't mind buying things in need of repair if it isn't too much work. I hardly every buy things new (except for shoes and other things that are hard to find vintage). All of my furniture is vintage and I also use my sheets until they are worn. This makes me the odd duck (again in the family). My mother used to throw out clothes if there was a missing button, she would refuse to go to a dance or event if she didn't have a brand new dress, and she just bought a $3,000 kitchen table that is painted blue that I could have done for her for $15 with a thrift store find and some paint.

While I am a strong believer in consumerism, I think many Americans have taken it to the extreme and consume and discard too much. It never ceases to amaze me what people will throw out. I go to the town dump every Saturday and see things in very good condition that could have been donated to a charity or something. [huh]

 

[Paisley]

I use some resources available at the office where I work. No, I don't raid the supply room. We have a paper shredding service, which I use for my confidential papers that I want destroyed. We also have a binding machine and waste paper, and I use them to make note pads.

I bought most of my furniture at estate sales and consignment stores.

I saved my skinny pants while they were out of fashion. Now I'm wearing them again.

While I'm running water from the faucet, waiting for it to get hot, I collect the cold water in a pitcher to put on my plants. And speaking of plants, years ago I killed my lawn and planted a xeriscape lawn and garden. It takes way less water, and the buffalo grass lawn only needs mowed once per year. I have a kid come by and mow it instead of maintaining a mower myself.

I use a broom instead of a vacuum cleaner. Less need for electricity and vacuum bags (not to mention lugging the vacuum around).

 

[Lady Day]

I have a lot of stuff. Im an artist, so I try to reuse everything I can. I made a brush holder out of an old towel and a ribbon. I buy old sheets and use them for mock up when sewing (thanks Elania!). I never get grocery bags, I make canvas bags out of the scraps of fabric that I have.

I also like to take things that are intended for a use, and completely flip it. I made my shower curtain out of a cloth I got on sale and some leftover grommets. I wash my clothes at work for free. They have a commercial drier, so I can dry 4 loads in 10 min! Whoo hooo!

My computer was used, my plants are clippings and are even grown in old vases I get from the thrift store. I walk everywhere. My nightstand is an old sanded cutting block with a stout rolled rug as the base. I buy all my DVDs used.

I do need to find use for my old hose (been looking around that thread) and I need to get all my scraps together to see if I can make a real nice bedspread out of just sewn scraps. That would be cool.


LD

 

[ShooShooBaby]

I have a lot of stuff. Im an artist, so I try to reuse everything I can.

LD, there is a store up here in Portland that you would lovecalled SCRAP. i donate my excess stuff i can't think of anything to do with, and go home with a big bag of crafty stuff for about $5. it's great. they do neat competitions like "iron artist" and have holiday boutiques and classes and a workroom too.

we've also got a CRAFT THRIFT STORE called the Knittin' Kitten that's amazing as well! if you ever visit PDX, bring an extra bag or three

 

[Miss Neecerie]

My story for today.

i've found there are very few things you can NOT get free or at least used for extremely cheap, if you're patient! freecycle and criagslist are your FRIENDS

Indeed this is true.

I scored a loveseat today off Freecycle. And in a bonus, I got there and they had a dark blue slipcover for it! (the actual sofa is peach and blue plaid!)

This means I now have actual livingroom seating, since I moved here in December without anything but a small chair for the livingroom. But I knew that the right furniture would happen at the right time, if i just waited...and voila...here it is...

 

[pretty faythe]

I bet none of you can get yellowing out of white pillow cases. Not my white pillow cases anyway.

Liquid bluing found I belive in the laundry isle. And then again, to go to the extreme vintage and extreme reusing, colonial days and beyond used well, I guess there is no delicate way to put this.... urine, for bleaching.

 

[Flivver]

I learned the "make do and mend" approach from my dad...a classic thrifty New Englander. I can't bear to throw something out if there is useful life left in it. This is particularly true with cars. Even though I work in the auto industry, I have never owned a new car. I tend to buy either late model cars with high mileage or older cars with low mileage. Then I run them over 200K miles. Since I do my own repairs, this has proven an economical way to go.

My first car was an example of this. My dad gave me his 1967 Olds 88 when HE was done with it. I drove it to 250K miles when the body and chassis were completely worn out. But the engine still used no oil (love those Olds Rocket V8s), and the transmission still shifted crisply. So I sold it to a guy who needed a good engine and transmission for the 1967 Olds 98 convertible he was restoring.

 

[Sunny]

Liquid bluing found I belive in the laundry isle. And then again, to go to the extreme vintage and extreme reusing, colonial days and beyond used well, I guess there is no delicate way to put this.... urine, for bleaching.

I second the bluing. Bluing was a regular part of washing back in the mid-nineteenth century, my other period of research. Laundering techniques and chemicals (lye soap, bleach, etc.) tended to turn the linens yellow. Bluing, at this period in a solid lump and sewn into a couple of tight bags, would turn those yellow linens back white.

 

[Fletch]

Beats heck out of putting pee in the machines, too. My building frowns on that sort of thing.

 

[Sunny]

Silly, you'd soak it in a basin or a bowl.

You might try Oxy-Clean, as well. I have a white muslin nightgown that gradually turned rather yellow and (frankly) greasy-feeling, and even felt like that right out of the washer. Yuck! But if I soak it in an Oxy-Clean solution for maybe five hours, and then wash it with some more, it comes out all white again. Just don't forget the detergent, as I did once when I was trying to get mud out of petticoats. That didn't work! lol

 

[Lady Day]

Dont you sometimes get tired of shopping?

You can only buy so much, till you just get burned out. Or at least I do. I wanted to buy some fabric but I couldnt decide, and Mama always said, "If you cant decide then you dont want it." So I didnt get anything, and it occurred to me, Im sick of shopping, I want the problem solving of making due, seeing how much I can save, and seeing how clever I am with that.

Do any of you all feel that way too? This thread made me realize how 'over bought' I am. Why has making due become such a bad thing? Aw well, Im off to make a bed spread with my scraps

LD

 

[pigeon toe]

I feel guilty for shopping sometimes too LD. Sometimes I have to take breaks from the malls, vintage stores and Ebay or else I (and my bank account) go crazy! Thrifting is the only thing that never makes me feel guilty though.

Speaking of mending though, is there any way to mend a silk wool cardigan? I've somehow managed to wear a hole in a 40's one I wear often. I hope there's a way I can mend it myself!