Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2017

Good Morning everyone ,nice to see some new folk joining in.

At DDs until after breakfast then will finally be at home in my own house after the Christmas/New Year break.(mind I only live 1o minutes from my house :):))
This morning I shall stock up on fruit and veg as thats all thats needed indoors(I have stacks of left over bits and pieces to get through)

Yesterday I mended DDs sleeve of her jumper that needed sewing and then DGS Mikey 'remembered' that his winter jacket needed a 'small repair' !!! Small was not the word, God knows how he did it, but the sleeve and pocket needed stitching, and of course Granny works miracles :):)

Well I managed to sew it up and told him its a good job he only has to wear it through Jan /Feb as by the spring he will have outgrown it.

Its a jacket he wears on top of his school blazer when its really cold, and was a hand-me-down from his next one up brother, so its at least done two of the boys a winter.

But golly it was a heck of a seam to hand stitch, and of course DD doesn't own a thimble ,or for that matter a sewing kit as she hates sewing.(I had to nip home and get mine ) But the job's done and Mikey can go back to school on Wednesday with a jacket that doesn't have the down filling falling out of the sleeve :):)

I was hoping to do some minimising of my study today but have woken with a very sore back,must have slept wrong I think so apart from the fruit and veg shopping any bending is on hold today

Looking forward to lots of MMMing this month, great to 'see' some new faces on here

Cheers chums
JackieO xx

Morning all and a belated Happy New Year! I like some of the other posters am a serial lurker .. I have posted in the past but feel like the stranger butting in on peoples conversations but have decided if I post more often I won't be a stranger ��
So .. have had a rough couple of years (lost my husband very unexpectedly that was the worst thing) but am getting better and stronger. I have a lovely family and much to be grateful for. I have picked up tips in the past from you lovely people and I hope to learn even more and benefit from this upbeat thread. So here's to us and 2017 ��

Athome 1 don't be a stranger pull up a chair and join in we are all in the same boat here and no one is a stranger for long :):)
I too am widowed but 13 years ago, and it takes you a long while to get used to a different way of living.Like you I have a lovely family whom I adore and would walk through fire for. Best legacy my late OH left me was my two Dds and their collective seven children, three of whom I look after wjn school is finished and during the holidays They keep me on my toes :):)

Good morning! May I join in, please? New Year, new start... I am very much a MMM'er, but have been stopped in my tracks for the last couple of years by a severe lack of space, when one of our offspring moved back home for "a couple of months" complete with fiancee and furniture... needless to say, it was actually 2½ years of having to locate my sewing machine and move half a ton of fabric etc. before I could so much as mend a seam! But luckily he gained a promotion at work, so they could afford a little place of their own; they moved out (mostly!) at the start of last month and I'm able to swing back into action again.

So my first task has been to make cushions for the day-bed that's in the room they've vacated. This room doubles up as an alternative living room (the original is just 12' x 12', not very big for 7/8 people!) and guest bedroom, and in spring & summer I host young German students in there, which pays for the basis of a family holiday. So the day-bed, which can turn into a double or two singles, is a necessity, but needs lots of cushions to make it comfortable as a sofa. And part of my half-ton of fabric etc. was umpteen cushion pads and lots of fabric leftover from making the blind & curtain in there...

The quilted blind was made from a long, thin off-cut of Colefax & Fowler fabric that originally cost £62 per metre. I got the off-cut for £10, and as it's a striped fabric, it was very easy to join "invisibly" to make something workable, with a fair bit left over. The curtain was cut down from a huge rescued curtain; our neighbour is a decorator & spotted it about to go onto the bonfire when he was redecorating a big country house after a fire. He asked nicely & was given it to hand to me to "do something with"... Its twin had been badly burnt, but this one only had a little light scorching down one side, which I was able to cut off. It's also a Colefax & Fowler print and contained the same blue as the blind fabric. The offcuts from both, and a (rescued) Clark & Clark fabric that goes quite well have made loads of cushions so far, and I have just two pads left to use up!

Other projects in hand: a "fuzzy" cot quilt from leftovers, which will probably go for sale on my market stall when finished, and a big "strippy" quilt from a jelly-roll of fabric that TDiL (trainee-daughter-in-law) had been given but has no time to do anything with. I won't need to buy anything to finish these with... There's plenty of mending too, and a certain amount of culinary experimentation, to use up packets of dried peas & beans in the back of the kitchen cupboards. I'm also planning to replace all of our worn-out net curtains in the next few weeks, to smarten our well-worn home up a bit, provided !KEA have some of their pretty £1 net left when I take DS3 back to uni at the end of this week.

So that should keep me busy for most of this month...!

"Fuzzy" quilting - it's probably known by many other names; I picked this up in the States - is where you make the seams on the outside, i.e. with the seam allowance sticking UP. Then you "chenille" or snip right round the seams at .5cm intervals, down to (but NOT including) the stitching, with very small sharp scissors. I usually make the quilt sandwich & stitch-in-the-ditch along the seam allowances to quilt it at this point, but that's up to you. When you wash it, the sticky-up seams will fray and curl (especially if you tumble-dry, but it'll happen eventually anyway) creating a fuzzy effect all along the seams. Great for small fingers to play with & explore! Usually done with big "pieces" - squares or strips - and a seam allowance a bit over the usual quarter-inch.

ETA: found some pics! One in the making...



And the finished article...