Make Do and Mend

Caterina

In case anyone is interested, Whitstable museum are holding a Make Do and Mend exhibition, I am planning to go soon and will report back here.

Caterina

mambury

count me in..............MAKE DO AND MEND 2009 here we come!:j

kippers

Count me in too....looking forward to more ideas.

bellaquidsin

Yes, it will be make do and mend for me too in the coming year as DH is retiring.

I will looking hard at everything I possess to see if it has a second use and I'll appreciate all your help and motivation.

Bella.

Aril

One of the things I have learnt from my Mum is to keep a bag of fabrics to hand [separate from a rag bag] of unusual fabrics, old clothes that you like but have seen better days, scraps of ribbon, wool, felt etc. I know many Old Stylers already to this so. I have them coloured sorted and then stored in an old Loyd Loom box from my Nana. It has been invaluable this last year for providing bits for the small person to make a hobbit hole [green fabric for the covering], all the soft furnishings needed for the interior of the Victorian house, the components for a Victorian costume and lastly a shepherd's outfit. The latter was made from a plain cream duvet that was beyond use but I had separated the two halves, an old white pillow case, some velvet for the waist from an old skirt and a silk scarf to go round his head. All these were school projects and could have cost me a fortune..particularly as the two costumes came at the end of November with less than two weeks notice [just what you need just before Christmas:rolleyes::D] but instead cost me nowt.
Another thing I did was to buy a lovely black lambswool jumper for 50p from a boot sale, Normally I wouldn't have given it a second glance because it had a hideous beaded decoration [beads ok pattern ugh] but I sat for an evening and removed all the beads and sequins and these will probably turn up on Christmas cards next year!
Aril

frugalswan

Count me in as well. I'm going to see what I can do with what I've got and what I need will have to do. So yeah, I'm in on this one. First stop, my wardrobe to see what doesn't fit (gah, not too good, but at least it'll be useful) to try and make a quilt or somesuch, and then on to my bookcase!

slm6002

Love all of the ideas on here. Can i join in too please for next year. Just one thing though, i was also hoping to declutter in 2009. Is it possible to do both or will i be too tempted to keep things 'just in case'?

rosieben

slm6002 wrote: »

...... Is it possible to do both or will i be too tempted to keep things 'just in case'?

oh dear, yes, its a fine line sometimes between re-usables and clutter! I've been trying to rationalise my rag bag/fabric stash, and I've had to make some difficult decisions there. I like to keep ice cream containers etc to re-use but I limit myself to just one or two of each.

wendy_ann1983

my duvet needed replacing (old, smelled of my ex and the lumpy bits just wouldn't shake out) and i'm moving in a few months so have cut up the padding and am using to wrap my breakable ornaments, other than that not very good at re using stuff, though getting better.

SunnyGirl

Count me in too! I've always made do & mended but picked up spme new ideas reading through this thread

What I tend to do is to put things that need sewing on one side (well in the ironing basket ) and do them once a week. I just pick an afternoon when I can sit down & watch the tv while I'm doing it.

Looking forward to us all sharing lots of thrifty ideas :beer: