Make Do and Mend

Glad

Sarahsaver wrote:

You could sit and mend something whilst with your kids! Or teach them the skills. I was the only person at uni in my house in the 1st year with scissors, a set of screwdrivers, and a sewing kit. The times people borrowed these things! Never hurts to be practically minded.

I clicked the thanks then instead of the quote :rolleyes: hope they don't give us anymore buttons,

anyhow, I'm sure my two would rather go cycling, swimming, walking the dog, playing board games or curling up with a Disney DVD,
the above are some of the things we do with the kids in the evenings and weekends and they wouldn't want to give up any of those to sit and mend their own clothes

My 12yr old daughter can already knit well, sew on buttons and do hems, and they can both cook well and mend a puncture, so I'm sure we're giving them enough practical skills,
as to mending clothes to save money, I wouldn't be buying clothes every month anyhow, the sales in Jan and July usually supply me with most of what we need and relatives often buy clothes to go with a small pressie for birthdays.

HOLsale

Austin_Allegro wrote:

Excellent challenge, it reminds me of the dark days of the last war. Shame there's no parachute silk around these days.... :rotfl:

Don't forsake charity shops though. The nature of charity shopping is that you have to plan ahead, so it's always worth going in for a look because you might find an amazing bargain you don't need now, but will need in the near future.

i agree on this point though i too had to really curb my charity shop spending for my dd age 3 as at one point i was probably spending at least £10 a week on clothing, toys and videos. now i am much more selective which is good as she already has twice as many clothes as we do!

i do still look for good items but only buy them if they are definately something she will like for the next year or so (i buy in larger sizes if possible) and if it's a decent price. i may buy something that isn't fantastic if it's only 50p because if it's something she needs (like tshirts right now) then it's a bargain but i definately don't buy anything for more than £1 unless it's something she will really like, plain and simple. it's not a bargain if she doesn't wear it is it?

i am frightfully low on larger size clothing for her compared to what i used to have and i only have the next 2 sizes of shoes but i'm not worried, i now just pop in and have a look and don't fret if i don't see anything. i'm finding i'm doing ok afterall. one thing to consider with charity shop is that the clothes that you buy are very unlikely to shrink any more than they have already so don't go by the size on tags go by the size that they look like. i quite often have my very tall 3 year old (she's about a year larger in size with huge size 11 feet :eek: ) in size 7 year old clothing! i tell you some of the items she wears like this fit her perfectly so i can only imagine how tight and short they would be on a 7 year old, my dd is actually on the thin side!

sometimes i buy clothes for her that fit well except that the neck line is a bit loose so a clever stitch here and there fixes that and can be let out later. she has clothes that she has worn for 2 years now as a dress can be ankle length to start with and then eventually come to just above the knee before you need to pass it on as long as it fits in the arms/chest area. Sleeves can be rolled up or stitched up and let down and the same goes for trousers. also wearing boots allows you to wear longer trousers than normal and will hide the fact that your trousers are a bit on the short side if they are ankle boots

i unfortunately do not find much clothing in my size at charity shops and what i do find often resmembles a floral tent so i rarely buy for me (very easy to avoid spending money that way then ) though i did find a gorgeous full length (to the ankles) wool coat with a hood, fully lined and looking brand new for only £14 back in October. i resisted buying before that point even though i'd been looking for months. instead i wore jumpers under my lighterweight coat because i didn't want to settle for something i didn't actually like. it paid off and this coat still looks brilliant! another thing here is don't believe the sizes on the tags. if i'd done that i wouldn't have this coat as it said it was 2 sizes smaller than i normally wear. it looked about right, i tried it on and it buttons fine with room to move even with a jumper underneath, see what i'd have missed out on if i hadn't tried it on?

i do a lot of mending myself as dh tends to go through trousers like you wouldn't believe. he is into the torn jeans look but sometimes it's just embarrassing where they rip. however he's been quite happy for me to sew in old shorts he no longer wears. so i take the waist band off and basically use some fancy heavy duty thread of his choice and then stitch the black shorts into the trousers leaving a little gap at least (usually don't have a choice) and then you see fancy stitching and black in the embarrassing spots rather than flesh :eek: :rotfl: dh gets a pair of trousers he's happy with, i'm not embarrassed and they last a little longer until we can find some more trousers at the charity shop to dye so he'll wear them (he is SO picky!)

i often get bargains at charity shops for items passed over because they have a stain or need slight repair. stains can usually be dyed over and minor repairs are fairly simple so it's always worth a look at those kinds of things.

i have a basket at home that gets filled up with items needing repair. sometimes when i'm in the mood i'll sit down with a movie and fix things. my next plan is to get secondhand sewing machine and some lessons. in high school i took a few sewing courses and made my own clothing complete with zippers, button down shirts with collars and cuffs etc so i'd be interested in doing a dress making course again to remind me how to do everythign! kids clothes can be made from inexepensive shirts/trousers in adult sizes found at charity shops. also my dd has unusual tastes in clothing so by doing this i will be able to alter clothing for her to make it just what she wants without spending a fortune at specialty type shops...

there's definately something to be said for mending/making your own clothes

HOLsale

tiff wrote:

I'm afraid I dont buy that many clothes, its not unusual for me to go a month without buying clothes.

i'm the same, i only buy clothing 2-3 times a year for myself. one thing i do that makes clothes last longer is to only wear my nicer items while i'm out. when i get home i change into jog bottoms or old jeans. when these items get ragged i mend them until they can't be mended anymore. when my nicer items start getting to old/worn to be considered nice anymore they become me house clothes and so on. i save soooo much money this way!

tiff

With my kids I tend to buy what they need at the beginning of a season, so that they get full wear out of it, no point in buying a pretty dress in August if its only worn a couple of times. Soon, I'll get their summer clothes out, see what fits and then decide what I need to buy. I've not bought them charity shop clothes before, but I am going to give it a go. I was in the mood for it last week, trawled all the charity shops on the high street, and could find hardly any childrens clothes. What I did find wasnt the right size, never mind there are other shops on other high streets to try and car boot sale season is upon us

tiff

Holsale, you have given some good tips there, I cant believe how thrifty you are! Fair play to you.

Edinburghlass_2

tiff wrote:

With my kids I tend to buy what they need at the beginning of a season, so that they get full wear out of it, no point in buying a pretty dress in August if its only worn a couple of times. Soon, I'll get their summer clothes out, see what fits and then decide what I need to buy. I've not bought them charity shop clothes before, but I am going to give it a go. I was in the mood for it last week, trawled all the charity shops on the high street, and could find hardly any childrens clothes. What I did find wasnt the right size, never mind there are other shops on other high streets to try and car boot sale season is upon us

I try to do it the other way round for bog standart t-shirts etc I buy at the end of the season in a bigger size to do the next year. I got a load of strappy t-shirts in Tesco in different colours at the end of the summer season along with shorts, skirts etc.

Twice a year or so I go to Primark (don't have one nearby) and stock up with whatever is fashionable this year for very little. I especially buy pjs and nighties there and some I bought for my daughter three years ago in a bigger size, because those were the ones she wanted, are still going strong :j

Mrs_Thrift

glad wrote:

the sales in Jan and July usually supply me with most of what we need.

Need? Need?? Nobody told me buying clothes was about needing them, I thought it was wanting them! Whoops! Maybe that's where I'm going wrong!

I tended to think I'm doing pretty well with clothes, as a friend of mine will save up £100 to spend on clothes and get 2 or 3 things with it, whereas when I saved up £100 to spend on honeymoon clothes last summer I went over by £6 but I got 3 tops, 4 skirts, 2 ponchos, a jacket, a light coat, a dress, a bikini and I think some shoes as well. Then for my brithday I had two pairs of boots, a pair of jeans, a furry gilet and a chunky belt for £61. So my friend thinks I'm some kind of witch that hypnotises people into giving away their stock to me or something! I have promised to take her shopping to show her how it's done, but you lot are waaaaaay better at it than me, so I might be able to pick up some tips and amaze my friend even more, hehe!

Sarahsaver

I like your style Ms thrift, I can identify with that! I tend to try get as much for my money as I can. Im looking forward to the imminent arrival of Primark in our town, when the now defunct Allders moves all its stuff out.
Today I have on fcuk jeans which were 50p, a pair of diesel trainers which ive had for 2 years, which were £29.99, so the cost per day for them is um er... not a lot! My tops were from the gap sale about £6 for 2, I have them both on at once;) my luxurious suede coat was from a factory shop in town for £11.99. Been reading elle magazine - which my mum got me (???) so now I am going to try and do a personal make over without getting any new stuff! For a lot of people temptation is there for one thing or another, and personally Id rather have a 'splurge' at the charity shop than go out and buy loads of cakes:) I really enjoy being thrifty but I quite enjoy the fact that most people think I must spend a fair bit on clothes because i have a few 'expensive' things from charity/factory shops/second hand stalls.

Mrs_Thrift

Sarahsaver wrote:

I like your style Ms thrift, I can identify with that! I tend to try get as much for my money as I can. Im looking forward to the imminent arrival of Primark in our town, when the now defunct Allders moves all its stuff out.
Today I have on fcuk jeans which were 50p, a pair of diesel trainers which ive had for 2 years, which were £29.99, so the cost per day for them is um er... not a lot! My tops were from the gap sale about £6 for 2, I have them both on at once;) my luxurious suede coat was from a factory shop in town for £11.99. Been reading elle magazine - which my mum got me (???) so now I am going to try and do a personal make over without getting any new stuff! For a lot of people temptation is there for one thing or another, and personally Id rather have a 'splurge' at the charity shop than go out and buy loads of cakes:) I really enjoy being thrifty but I quite enjoy the fact that most people think I must spend a fair bit on clothes because i have a few 'expensive' things from charity/factory shops/second hand stalls.

Wow, they are some impressive bargains, Sarah! I've already decided that the next time I do go clothes shopping (not in April obviously!) it will be charity shops I'll start with. At the moment my shopping routine starts at the best cheap shop in town, then go round the rest of the cheap shops (you know those ones where everything is crammed in and the turnover of stock is really fast?) before moving onto the "expensive" shops only if I can't find what I want in the cheap ones - by expensive I mean New Look and Claire's Accessories, which my fellow clothes obsessed friend considers cheap shops, hehe!

Oh apart from two things - I need cerise pink shoes and gloves to go with a dress I already own (it has pink on it, it's not completely pink, I'm not Barbie, lol!) and a handbag I got from ebay for 99p to complete my outfit for a wedding in July......but I was planning on spending about £70 for a new outfit for it before I had a good rummage through my wardrobe a couple of weeks ago.

And I've realised I'm actually wearing a vintage shirt today that I also found in the rummage - I haven't worn it for about 9 or 10 years, and before that it was my Dad's, bought in M & S in the late 70s or early 80s!

moggins

I'm very lucky, my daughter works at Primark, she's always putting things by for the youngest. She's currently got 2 pairs of pyjamas and a dressing gown put aside for £1 each.

The last item she put by was a pink fleece snuggle sack which was a godsend as the little one is always throwing off her covers at night and then waking up because she's cold, that cost me all of £2.

She puts it by when she sees it and then comes home and checks whether I can use it or not.