Turning the sheets inside out (sides to middle)

valk_scot

If you've got a stair runner as opposed to fully fitted carpet you should be shifting it every year or so to even up the wear along the length. You need enough extra for a full tread and riser and over the course of four years you move all the excess to the top, then reverse over the next four years, moving half a tread at a time. Most of the wear happens on the front half of a tread so you can literally x4 the lifespan of the runner that way. When I first moved in to this house we had an old runner on the stairs that had clearly been through this process several times, but it was still in fairly good condition. I got another six years out of it...it had brass clips that just slid out. Some runners have rods and clips that do the same. It's not a hard job.

I remember learning how to turn sheets (flat felled seam...you'd never notice it) and collars & cuffs at school back in the 70's. I cut two older flanellette sheets down into cot bed sheets for my first child and was still using them for the third. Cot bed sheets were ridiculously expensive at the time....probably still are. I put the elastic corners in and everything. It's not difficult. My mum said I'd used the same sheets as a child.

I knit socks so you'd better belive I know how to darn them too! You can use a tennis ball as a mushroom or a larger ball if you need a bigger curve. I can do invisible mending too, but that only really works on woven woolen fabric like tweeds. I did some invisible mending when my OH tore a hole in his kilt. A kilt costs £600 for a good one after all! You can get a darning mushroom and the clear iron on mesh for invisible mending from haberdashery/wool shops (yes they do still exist!) or in John Lewis.

I do think the old make do and mend techniques are dying a death. Clothes and domestic linen items are so cheap nowadays it's hardly worth the effort. But to make them cheap they're frankly crap quality and not worth the effort of mending anyway. I have Egyptian cotton and flanellette sheets that my mother was given as wedding presents in the 50's, fgs, and they're still going strong, even if they are wearing a bit thin and I've had to rehem them all a couple of times. I darn my hand made socks and sweaters because they're made from good quality wool yarns to a high standard and also will last years. Talking of which don't wait till sweaters actually go into holes, darn the thin place. It's easier.

I learned all this at primary and high school btw, back in the 70's, at the same time as I was doing triple science Highers and being groomed for university. It was just expected that women were going to need the household skills no matter what career they intended to go into. Where do the young folk of today learn it, if their parents don't know?

Ballymackeonan

My dad wore separate-collar shirts - the collars fastened on with studs. He wouldn't wear anything else - attached collars didn't sit right! The beauty of it was that he always bought an extra collar, so the shirt lasted for twice as long.

Does anyone out there remember flour-bag sheets? My grandparents ran a bakery, and during the war made sheets from the leftover flour bags, which were heavy cotton. They had the seams down the middle as well! When I visited them as a child, the sheets were still in use, with faint traces of print still visible despite many boilings. They were probably very harsh at first but I remember them as warm and comfortable!

GreyQueen

soupdragon10 wrote: »

Was thinking about some of the things my gran used to do to economise and this was one that I remember well. When sheets were getting worn /thinner in the middle they would be cut in half and seamed so that the outside was now the middle (using an old treadle sewing machine).

Can't see that this would be particularly comfortable to sleep on, but it's an example of the measures that people of her generation went to to save money and use things until they fell apart.

She would also turn the collars of shirts around when they started to become worn at the neck, as the body of the shirt was still in good shape.

Hello Soupgragon10, sides-to-middling sheets is still going on. Several of mine are done (smooth cotton sheets) and I've slept on made a s-2-m sheet and I can reassure you that there's no loss in comfort. The trick is to carefully iron the selvedges (woven outer edges) of the sheet so that they will lie flat once they are in the centre. It takes about an hour to do; fold a laundered and ironed sheet in half along the top-seam. Cut thru top hem, rip in half and cut thru bottom hem. Switch the halves so that the selvedges are in the middle. Overlap by appox 5cm/ 2in and run a line of straight stitches down, then run a widespaced zigzag to hold the selvedges flat. You'll need to create a simple turn under on the raw outer edges (the bits you ripped) to stop them fraying but its very easy.

horsechestnut

If you do turn a full collar and you want it to fasten at the neck, then you have to make a new buttonhole on the correct side; as the original is now on the opposite side! However if it is a casual shirt that won't be fastened at the neck, then you don't need to add the new buttonhole.
In the seventies, we just used to remove the worn collar part and leave the collar-stand; thus making a Granddad Collar. Very fashionable and less work than turning the collar completely.
The wide jeans of the seventies made very good potato bags (You took your own bag to the greengrocers' shop and they just put the potatoes directly into the bag; no poly bags of potatoes then!
If you have to drastically shorten new trousers for growing children, keep the fabric that you have cut off then when the child grows you can machine it back on; using the new seam as the bottom edge of the leg. Hem as normal.
If I hand knit a jumper, then I keep some of the wool and if the garment shows signs of wear I pick up stitches from the just outside the worn part and re-knit a piece to cover the area. You just sew the end in neatly.
Also in the seventies we used to use corduroy patches for the elbows of our jumpers.
If you make dresses for your girls, when you let down the hem, cover the hem mark with a contrasting piece of fabric; it looks like an attractive piece of braid/ribbon.
Turned the sheets many times! But can also be used as the underside of a new Quilt cover.

GreyQueen

"I have Egyptian cotton and flanellette sheets that my mother was given as wedding presents in the 50's, fgs, and they're still going strong, even if they are wearing a bit thin and I've had to rehem them all a couple of times. I darn my hand made socks and sweaters because they're made from good quality wool yarns to a high standard and also will last years. Talking of which don't wait till sweaters actually go into holes, darn the thin place. It's easier."


valk_scot, I'm with you 100% on the quality of old versus modern sheets. An elderly South African friend introduced me to the concept of BMD sheets. Stands for Birth-Marriage-Death, that being how long a good sheet should last! Her own S.A. grandma's reaction to the outbreak of WW2 was to go out and stock up on linen as "You won't be able to buy this quality after the War". She'd already lived thru WW1 and she was right. Even "Utility" brand sheets, sometimes to be found unused in secondhand stores, are superior to most stuff you can buy now. And even don't get me started on the rubbish quality of sewing threads these days........;)

jcr16

what i've done in the past is made a single duvet cover into a cot duvet cover when the single duvet got a stain on it. worked a treat. i found it very easy to make and i then went on to make a couple more, worked out alot cheaper making them from a single duvet than to actualy buy cot side duvet covers.

i enjoy sewing, but i don't often to the time to have a go at all the ideas i have .

soupdragon10

I do a lot of patching and mending, and am convinced that one pair of DD jeans is now more of my patches and mends than original garment. She is, however, very attached to them, so rips and holes are regularly mended.

Am always gobsmacked when colleagues replace perfectly good clothes simply because the seam is ripped! Have mentioned the concept of mending, but this doesn't seem to be something that's taught in textile classes in school any more, such a shame.

Justamum

Dippypud wrote: »

Hi Frugal,

Unstich the collar from the body of the shirt, turn it over, so that the folded under "back" of the collar is on top.

Tack stitch it in, iron well, sew properly, job done.
Works aswell with double cuffs.

I do that with my DH's shirts, then when the other side is also worn through I just take off the collar bit and he is left with the bit which looks like a mandarin collar, so they last a bit longer that way! I always tell him he must have a sharp neck to make them wear out :rotfl:

Justamum

Alison_Funnell wrote: »

We used to have sheets that had been sides to middled they had french seams and were comfy enough. Most modern sheets aren't good enough quality so I don't know how well the seams would last on new ones.

I think you're right about the quality - if they were very good quality Egyptian cotton it might be worth doing.

Linda32

Frugal wrote: »

oooooh if anyone has a spare darning mushroom, or knows where I could get one please do let me know as i would love to have a go at that

Hi, Just looked at the ebay link, and those in the packet look as if they come from Dunelm.
Wilkinsons probably do them as well.

I would imagine John Lewis do them as well, or department store like John Lewis.