Make Do and Mend

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Hi Hapless,

There's another thread on this subject with some good ideas so I've merged your thread with it to keep all the suggestions together.

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rosieben

SallyinWales wrote: »

I find darning rather soothing! I do insist on doing it in wildly contrasting colours though!

I love darning too, and hand sewing. I made my dgd a duvet cover, pillowcase and curtains and curtains all by hand and using sheets for backing

Another great 'wartime' thread and some really good ideas. Keep 'em coming!! :T:T:T

janb5

Old odd pillow cases fit the mattress of a Moses basket and once tucked in look like a fitted sheet. Very useful when you have run out of sheets!

meanmarie

Making do and mend is one of my pleasures when I have the time...bits of wool, fabric etc are saved until I find a use for them. My family think that I am mad, maybe I am, but if I'm happy in my madness, does it matter???

DGS1 (6)frequently remarks in a complimentary manner about how much 'stuff' I know, like how to pick blackberries and other hedgerow stuff to make into jam, picking sticks from the ditches in the fields around and using them for a booster fire in summer everings rather than put the heat on. His praise is more than enough for me

Marie

BerkshireBird

angelavdavis wrote: »

I have done various over the years. I think my make do and mend comes from when we made go-carts from bits of old prams and scrap wood! My Mum is also a recycler in this respect.


- I have four compost bins, a wormery and have just taken delivery of a bokashi!

Just wondered, what is a bokashi??

Have just got water butt, composter on order, never heard of one of these.

Aril

Crikey- I'd forgotten all about this thread!
I've carried on in much the same make do and mend vein this year and so far have
1.Rescued a door from a friend that was destined for the tip, repainted it and bought a near perfect brass handle for 1/2 price from the charity shop and it's now hanging in my front room.
2.Made my son a Dennis the Menace door sign using all cardboard I'd kept from other things. Some of the pictures were free hand and the others were traced off a puzzle lid I paid the princely sum of 10p for.
3.All our plants and sweet peas have been staked with the cuttings we took from the buddlia last summer.
4.I'm in the process of applying the same thinking to the kitchen that we're currently redoing. Lack of funds prevent us from just replacing it. Instead we're currently converting a big space left behind when the hot air unit was removed into a larder and making shelves from left over MDF that was at my parents and some from my sister. I've got some pine knobs from freecycle which I intend to repaint in funky colours and as new cupboard doors are also a no no I shall repaint them and then make central panels from papier mache that I'll varnish and paint or decorate in some potty design.
Nothing is ever thrown out without seeing whether it can first be fixed and if not then resurrected or reused in another form.
Aril

buxtonrabbitgreen

my mum used to sides to middle sheets and I would never do it as I remember how uncomfotable they were. But i did make all the blankets sheets and clothes for my babies. Blankets were offcuts from a material shop. Sheets were old doubles converted. And clothes were made out of an assortment of preety scaps of flannel material that my dad bought for dusters for his cleaning business. My OH has recently mended my coffee machine and breadmaker, though I did buy a new kettle £4.88. A couple of years ago I took the doors off my kitchen units and sanded them down and re varnished them. I bought them new when I bought the house 20 years ago. The drawers have been mended by using the drawer carcassess of the ones my sis was going to throw away. The lounge curtains are lovely red real velvet £3 from a charity shop and were so big there was enough to cover the dining room chairs,and make some cushions. Kids trousers were patched then made into shorts. Old tea towels into floor cloths. Same as you all do really

Tim_Deegan

kittie wrote: »

I had a kingsize tempur 3" mattress topper, which cost a lot of money at the time, but 12 months ago we changed to an electric bed, which consisted of two singles fastened together so that they can go up and down independently. I cut the tempur mattress longways, in half and also the stretchy cover. I made two gussets and sewed each half cover into a cover for each single mattress. Result is that each single mattress now has a tempur topper

I also cut up every KS flat sheet and KS fitted sheet and made single fitted sheets. So now we have KS duvet covers and a KS duvet with several single fitted sheets. I have lovely flannalette and 400 count cotton so wasn`t going to give them away.

Actually looking back I don`t know how I did it because it was very boring but well worth it

That's a good money saving idea for the topper that you already had. However the best way to save money with toppers is not to pay the over inflated prices that Tempur charge in the first place (they are no better than loads of far cheaper toppers on the market).

ocy1

hi Maryb Icut down my girls jean to long shorts(just on the knee) they wear them with long stripy socks or long boots in winter they think they are cool.

Bambywamby

I've done a few "make do and mends" in my time and I can say got great pleasure from the product.

This included making a pair of fingerless lace gloves out of a pair of hole lace tights. (This was the 80's).

Covering scuffed black boots with black permanent marker and superglueing cardboard in the sole where a hole started to appear.

I made an old, holey lurex jumper into a glittery cushion cover.

Putting coloured pieces of fabric behind holes in jeans so it looked at though they were bought like that.