My war on waste!!!

NewShadow

Assuming it's a natural fibre top (given the bleach bleached it), you could consider a dye pack.

When my black work jeans are getting a little grey, I chuck them in the washing machine with a pack of dye and anything else that needs darkening.

I hate new jeans (take ages to feel 'right') so it keeps my old ones going for years.

edwink

eandjsmum wrote: »

Bad news I have splashed bleach on a navy "Joules" sweatshirt. I am not willing to trash the sweatshirt as I like it far too much so I am going to try washing it then covering up the splash mark with a fabric marker pen.

Just a thought if that does not work you could splash some more areas with bleach to make it look like it was made like that. How funky would that look? I actually did that to a pair of jeans once when I spilt some bleach on them. They look fab actually. I have to say I know it was only a pair of jeans but they were my best ones, second hand but my best all the same and I very very rarely use bleach for anything. The only reason I was using bleach was to put some in the toilet cistern because we flush our loos with rainwater from a harvesting tank so it is just to keep the cistern in a clean condition. I maybe do that twice a year so imagine my horror when it splash on my best jeans.:eek:

Hope everyone is ok in the awful windy weather. My poor hens were getting blown about all over the place today. Bless them.

Edwink x

Pollycat

GreyQueen wrote: »

This is Ilona's dog in a coat, don't know if it's the umbrella coat, could have been, by the look of it:

http://meanqueen-lifeaftermoney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/time-for-winter-coats.html

Aw, what a lovely dog.
He looks like he enjoys walks more than the pug would. :rotfl:

suki1964 wrote: »

When I was growing up living in Battersea, there was an umberella maker/repair shop along the northcote road

You never binned brollies, you took them in and got them mended

He used to do a huge selection of handles. One year we were bought brollies for Christmas,I got Donald Duck and my sister got Minny Mouse

He also repaired watches and clocks and his shop was opposite a proper shoe repairers who could repair anything made from leather. Handbags, belts, shoes and jackets all got taken in for repair

Sadly, all these trades have almost disappeared.

I can't find a 'proper' cobbler anywhere.
I want my shoes repaired properly and don't mind if it takes days (or even weeks) - I don't want a 5 minute fix that lasts only slighly longer.

[Deleted User]

Where I live there are at least 4 cobblers 5 nail bars a tanning salon a dozen or so estate agents, god know how many charity shops and very little else, we do have a Wilkos though and a Tesco 'metro and an Iceland but the local green grocer has gone kaput and our HSBC has decided to up sticks and go.Far too many of the wrong shops unfortunately.Good job I try to steer clear of most of them now I will go to the farm shop or the WI market for my fruit and veg.I drive to Lidls in Sittingbourne for my groceries around every 10 days or so or just adapt what I have .The Tesco Metro is just too expensive to go in,in fact the larger Tesco around a mile away is actually cheap than the metro.Which is OK if you like Tesco's (I'm not keen) but for a lot of people round here they either don't drive or are unable to get to the bigger one so are trapped into using the little one Clever marketing ploy by Tesco's I think.

My friend bring me down her shoes and boots to be fixed from Dartford 25 miles away :):)

suki1964

Pollycat wrote: »

Aw, what a lovely dog.
He looks like he enjoys walks more than the pug would. :rotfl:


Sadly, all these trades have almost disappeared.

I can't find a 'proper' cobbler anywhere.
I want my shoes repaired properly and don't mind if it takes days (or even weeks) - I don't want a 5 minute fix that lasts only slighly longer.

It's a crying shame, but once again it's a sign of our throwaway society

I'm lucky that hubby can turn his hand to most things and repair but he's not a cobbler

We bought a strimmer last year, not cheap either. Anyway it packed up so hubby took it apart to mend it, the the bit that needed replacing was in a sealed unit, so the manufacturers replaced the whole strimmer as it was cheaper then repairing !!! If he could have got to the bit it was £4 for the replacement !!!


Madness

suki1964

JackieO wrote: »

Where I live there are at least 4 cobblers 5 nail bars a tanning salon a dozen or so estate agents, god know how many charity shops and very little else, we do have a Wilkos though and a Tesco 'metro and an Iceland but the local green grocer has gone kaput and our HSBC has decided to up sticks and go.Far too many of the wrong shops unfortunately.Good job I try to steer clear of most of them now I will go to the farm shop or the WI market for my fruit and veg.I drive to Lidls in Sittingbourne for my groceries around every 10 days or so or just adapt what I have .The Tesco Metro is just too expensive to go in,in fact the larger Tesco around a mile away is actually cheap than the metro.Which is OK if you like Tesco's (I'm not keen @ but for a lot of people round here they either don't drive or are unable to get to the bigger one so are trapped into using the little one Clever marketing ploy by Tesco's I think.

My friend bring me down her shoes and boots to be fixed from Dartford 25 miles away :):)

Our small town must have 20 hairdresser, ten beauty salons, two nail bars and numerous tanning places. Even has 4 barbers - yet there is no cobbler

Oh and eating places galore, every third shop is a coffee house/cafe ( every fourth is a charity shop )

We have tesco and lidl, and if we didn't have tesco our town would be dead. It's not a big tesco, just 16 checkouts, but people shop there, use the free car park and use the town - if only to stuff their faces before beautifying themselves lol

We do have a couple of butchers and a green grocer and bakers so we aren't doing too bad. We also have a wonderful ironmongers and a shop that sells everything you need for the home, paint, paper, washing machine,carpets, cups, lights - everything.


Re tesco metro, yep their prices are " convenience " prices. I used to audit sainsbury prices and their lovely shop in the kings road at the Bluebird had prices that would make your eyes water. I nearly collapsed when i saw 1/2 a cue on sale for 49p when all their other stores were between 19 and 29p ( depending on store size)

Justamum

Looking at some of the photos in the paper yesterday with people in the storm I think there'll be quite a few more broken umbrellas around!

GreyQueen

Justamum wrote: »

Looking at some of the photos in the paper yesterday with people in the storm I think there'll be quite a few more broken umbrellas around!

:j Bring it! I want either a plain coloured one or a patterned one to form the liner for the bag I am intending to make out of the black one harvested yesterday.

Have been out on some errands, presently raining lightly but not windy so no crippled brollies abandoned on the street, but it is only a matter of time. These discarded brollies have always troubled me so I'm just thrilled to bits to have some project ideas for them.:o

My city seems to be following the trend reported above with every second premises which closes re-opening as either a coffee shop or some kind of personal grooming establishment (topiary, talon or respraying outfits). Neither of which I have any use for as I don't drink coffee nor do I hire anybody to do my personal maintenance.

I was particularly galled to see that a cobbler has become a coffee shop. Although I guess the death-knell for cobblers is the shoes which are made with bonded rubbery soles as per my current pair of H0tters. I have tried to get shoes of this ilk repaired before and been told that they're not re-soleable.

I shall be adding my month's rubbish to the communal bins tonight, which is one carrier bagful. It's a little less than a true month, as I was away until the evening of the 3rd November. I will be interested to see how much rubbish (or, how little) I can produce between now and Xmas eve. By end January I should get up to a full month's reckoning. There will definately be fewer things in it as I have switched over to leaf tea for my main brew, although there are some herbal teas in bags still on the premises.

I have also recycled lots but not having it to recycle in the first place would have been the better option.

Today, among my errands, I popped into a chazzer where I shop frequently and gave them back one of their 20p books to put out again. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and finished it last night. Keep 'em churning, the only value a novel has it to be read, it doesn't do anything sitting on a shelf. This is a 1960s paperback and needs to keep moving before the forces of nature want to reclaim its substance.

Righty, quick bit of interwebulation then on with baking bread and batch cooking, must make good use of my day off.

Justamum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Although I guess the death-knell for cobblers is the shoes which are made with bonded rubbery soles as per my current pair of H0tters. I have tried to get shoes of this ilk repaired before and been told that they're not re-soleable.

When we lived in Swaziland my DH would get his shoes re-soled by a local cobblers. They would use old tyres as the sole. A pair of boots could go on for years with repairs like that - properly sewn on, not glued. When we moved back to the UK we took the same boots to be fixed and the cobbler took one look at them and said they were impossible to repair. He just didn't have the skill of the ones in Africa.

We had a wind-up watch which needed a repair, so took it to someone who advertised themselves as a watchmaker, and he couldn't do wind-up watches, only battery operated (ie he could change the battery!) Why call yourself a watchmaker if you're not?

Justamum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Today, among my errands, I popped into a chazzer where I shop frequently and gave them back one of their 20p books to put out again. I bought it a couple of weeks ago and finished it last night. Keep 'em churning, the only value a novel has it to be read, it doesn't do anything sitting on a shelf. This is a 1960s paperback and needs to keep moving before the forces of nature want to reclaim its substance.

I do that with novels I get from the charity shop too. A few months ago I found a few Anya Seton books which I loved when I was in my teens/early 20s. I tried reading them again and was really disappointed, so they went back.