make do and mend for tougher times

mardatha

Huge storm on the radar heading right for me and theres booms of thunder in the distance - I hope it doesnt upset my router and melt my Sky box like it did before. If I go missing somebody send me emergency sweetie parcels in case of sugar deprivation !

recoverydust

I am totally spoiled
We are in the habit of saving hard (see my diary) and had enough in April for my DH to buy me a spanking Brother with all the quilting accessories, its so fangled the shop gives you a free lesson!
I havent been for the lesson.... but thats really no excuse... how hard can it be.
I used to make all my clothes, well a lot of them and most of the kids when they were small. I knit very well and plan on making pinafores and knitting shrugs to go with, trousers with waistcoats for boys. Recycled fabric, I have loads of haberdashery bits and a bit of a compulsion to buy buttons and ribbon from the charity shops. size 7 needles and double knit acrylic knits up quick, bash them out for Xmas.... etc
Have a few skint mates with 2-5 year olds and a grand daughter to do my market research on.
Fingers crossed
xx

Evie74_2

Good morning all, (((hugs))) to anyone in need and welcome to the new posters :j

Fuddle - cross stitch is very simple and easy to learn, it was the first embroidery I learned to do. The patterns are very straightforward - I'd recommend starting with a small counted cross stitch kit to let you get the hang of it, as it will have all the silks etc in, in the right amounts. Once you are confident you can either move on to a bigger kit or design your own. I find it very relaxing (and it keeps my hands out of the biscuit tin!)

This morning's garden inspection has confirmed my fears: yesterday I thought the tomato plants were looking a little yellow and wondered if it was blight. Today the leaves are brown/yellow and droopy . Am going to strip all the tomatoes off and see if they ripen on their own. Also, something has eaten all my onions down to stumps :mad:. Not a good day!

Wedding gift lists do seem to be the norm these days - I'm not sure when that became acceptable practice, but I'd prefer a list to an outright request for cash! I think I will stick to my original budget of £25 and hope it doesn't come across as mean. They know our financial circumstances have changed with DH's redundancy so hopefully they will be understanding if it doesn't seem much compared to other people's gifts

Have good days all!

Evie xx

valk_scot

recoverydust wrote: »

new poster come out of lurking, looking for a cheap way to get fabric and patterns for under 5's clothes
any suggestions very welcome
xx

Charity shops are great for kids clothes. If you like the style then unpick it and use it for a pattern but tbh it's as cheap to keep your eye out for the regular 50% off sales on paper patterns, buy a couple of good basic multisize ones and trace off the size you need onto brown paper or non-smearing newspaper.

For fabric, use adult size clothes from the charity shops and cut them down. Reuse zips and buttons and trims. Lidl, Aldi and Ikea have reasonable thread, just don't use crappy market stall stuff!

jpscloud

I bought a half price Bush 24 stitch sewing machine in argos... have also now bought a quilting foot so good to go! I used it to make my mum's cushions for her birthday present. One thing to remember with sewing machines, is change the needle frequently.

At first I struggled for ages and ages wondering what I was doing wrong... actually the needle was slightly bent and when replaced everything ran like a dream!

GreyQueen

Evie74 wrote: »

Good morning all, (((hugs))) to anyone in need and welcome to the new posters :j

This morning's garden inspection has confirmed my fears: yesterday I thought the tomato plants were looking a little yellow and wondered if it was blight. Today the leaves are brown/yellow and droopy . Am going to strip all the tomatoes off and see if they ripen on their own. Also, something has eaten all my onions down to stumps :mad:. Not a good day!

Wedding gift lists do seem to be the norm these days - I'm not sure when that became acceptable practice, but I'd prefer a list to an outright request for cash! I think I will stick to my original budget of £25 and hope it doesn't come across as mean. They know our financial circumstances have changed with DH's redundancy so hopefully they will be understanding if it doesn't seem much compared to other people's gifts

Have good days all!

Evie xx

Morning all.

Evie, so sorry to hear that the Evil Blight is menacing your tommies. A few doors down from me a lottie pal with a greenhouse full of beautiful toms is watching them nervously. It's dreadful stuff.

I picked thru my tatties yesterday and some of them had gone squidgy and even started to leak fluid. Following my Dad's advice, I sliced off the parts of otherwise sound tatties which were showing signs of blight. It's an education in nastiness. The first sign of trouble is a slight bronzing in patches (these are a white-skinned variety, don't know how it would show up on a pink-skinned variety like Desiree). These seem to "sweat" and quickly develop nasty white mould. If you slice into them, you can see brown staining in the flesh and sometimes the whiteness had taken root in there.

I performed preventative surgery on 6 kg and probably discarded about another 1 kg as rotters or offcuts. The cut tatties quickly dry out on the opened side and have been brought down to the flat for use. I have the others still out on the staging in the shed and on the floor, between several sheets of newspaper, in hopes that if something starts rotting, it'll be caught before it spreads to the rest. It's a regular PITA but seems to be the general trend of this year.

A lottie pal only 50 yards away, very good gardener, asked me if my broadbeans are OK? He's got ones where the beans have stayed as tiny beans inside the pod and turned black. Mine are bearing heavily. Second batch are starting to set pods just as first batch have gone over. I shall be looking like a broad bean, soon. :rotfl:

mardatha wrote: »

Huge storm on the radar heading right for me and theres booms of thunder in the distance - I hope it doesnt upset my router and melt my Sky box like it did before. If I go missing somebody send me emergency sweetie parcels in case of sugar deprivation !

:eek: Hang on to yer electronics, hun. Have you got a surge protector on your kit? We have a lot of thunderstorms in Provincial City and they're pretty much de rigeur down here. My pooter and peripherals are on a 6-ganger incorporating a surge protector. Unfortunately, the router has to be plugged into the wall socket and will have to take it's chances.

Back when there were these things called "faxes" in widespread use (youngsters under 25 may have to look these up) we had a helluva storm which fried no end of them around here. The manufacturers and retailers must have been rubbing their hands in glee.

:hello: Hello recoverydust and seraph. Nice to have you aboard.

Today I should be doing Something Exciting *. Not that I had anything planned, y'unnerstand, but it's a bit naff not to have anything to say when asked at t'office on Monday.

I may have to fabricate something as I've had very little sleep thanks to the numpties who insist on treating 3am - 4 am as if it was mid-afternoon and have shedloads of Domestic Engineering to attend to. The advantage of a small flat is the tidying efforts quickly bear fruit. The disadvantage is that it degenerates into a pit at the drop of a newspaper.

Ach well, I suppose I ought to get dressed. Have a good day, peeps.

* I dusted my computer stuff. Gordon Bennett, where does all this fluff come from?!

prepareathome

kittie wrote: »

I need to see to my cherry plums today, they all simmered on very low with a tiny amount of water and then I used the big metal mouli, looks like

http://www.cookingmarvellous.com/small-baby-mouli-mill-grunwerg.html?gclid=CMSmxuaF0LECFQUOfAodtlQAfg

but is much bigger and has 4 different sieving plates. Wish I had bought it 30 years ago tbh. The stones separated quite easily and I was left with puree

Jeepers that brings back memories, its what I had when mine were going onto solids, sadly it was given away with everything else when we sold up and moved to Scotland and I bet the one I had 35 years ago was stronger.

westcoastscot

Thriftwizard just found your blog, it's really interesting!! Thank you

Pooky

Fuddle - if you want to pm me your address I will lookout a simple starter cross stitch kit for you (I've got some that came on the front of mags). Will happily pop it in the post for you next time I'm in town.

rosieben

greenbee wrote: »

Try here for some inspiration

greenbee, that's a great blog, thanks for the link :T