Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2020

halfamo

Havent done any mending for ages but I managed to re-elastic the waist on 4 pairs of pants (undies) yesterday and tried one pair out this morning and they are fine so shall be doing a few more and save the cost of  new ones for another year or so. Dont know why ladies smalls are always so flimsy but they are. and they are silly prices too..

Half a mo AKA Culpepper

Laura_Elsewhere

@halfamo - yes, when I compare My Intended's pants with mine, it always makes me feel cross! His last years, being made of slightly thicker fabric, and they seem to fit comfortably everywhere, and have this marvellous proper elastic at the waist. Mine are in such thin fabric they're virtually see-through to begin with, are designed to sit below my waist which on someone my size is a disaster to start with, and have flimsy barely-there elastic. 

I have started experimenting with making my own - made trickier by having a 1902 Singer that only does straight stitch, no zig-zag, so I'm hand-stitching them. 

But it was either that, or turn into my own Mum and wear pants, then tights, then a great big pair of pants to hold the first two up!  

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Make Do & Minimise: food from fridge & freezer
Make Do & Minimise: Wool from stash - currently knitting beanies.

cornishchick

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@halfamo - yes, when I compare My Intended's pants with mine, it always makes me feel cross! His last years, being made of slightly thicker fabric, and they seem to fit comfortably everywhere, and have this marvellous proper elastic at the waist. Mine are in such thin fabric they're virtually see-through to begin with, are designed to sit below my waist which on someone my size is a disaster to start with, and have flimsy barely-there elastic. 

I have started experimenting with making my own - made trickier by having a 1902 Singer that only does straight stitch, no zig-zag, so I'm hand-stitching them. 

But it was either that, or turn into my own Mum and wear pants, then tights, then a great big pair of pants to hold the first two up!  

I gave up on the flimsy undies for everyday use, I have gone over to boxer shorts for work and save the flimsy sexy ones for special occasions lol

MrsCD

Darned a pair of socks and sewed up the hem of a pair of trousers today.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Minimise: Wool stash - have 7 beanies & one scarf so far.
Make Do: Food from stores/fridge/freezers

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Minimise: Los used to make soup.

DaveTheGeordie

Did a whole garden this year starting late from May when redundancy/lockdown hit. Turned it into a backyard allotment basically. Started with long grass, stones, rubbish, overgrown. Grew a few things but basically ended up with a couple of large bucket full of a couple of different variety of potatoes. Ate a few jackets and a lot of rustic chips. Been eating chips for months a few times a week.

Another thing. I bought a Wilko Greenhouse. Just a plastic one. I was lazy and didn't tie it down. I was doing a lot of things at once. It was a to do later job, not a priority. It got blown over and snapped. So I put it back together. Moved it. Put it on a frame I made out of the wood from an old fence. Then a freak wind came. It got totalled. Snapped again in several places, and at the joints.

So... this time, I glued it at every joint and wherever it had snapped. Taped up every joint with gorilla/garden tape. Re-nailed it to the frame. Tied it around a fence for support. Zip tied it to the bottom of the frame also. Wrapped metal garden wire around the sheet/cover. Its held against several strong gale since.

I love this garden/growing malarky. Love making mistakes, and learning from them. Make mistake all the time, and just learn.

Laura_Elsewhere

@DaveTheGeordie that's ace to read! I'm another one learning by mistakes, a good bit of trial and error! 
I like chucking calendula seeds around, and planting lots of small dianthus 'clove pinks', because they look pretty (awww!) but more usefully, the petals of the flowers are edible and they attract loads of insects into the garden, which helps with pollinating any veg you grow that need pollinating, plus the birds so that helps keep bad insects under control without using chemical warfare. 
Oh, and any knd of water is great for bringing helpful wildlife in - doesn't need to be fancy or expensive, I have a plastic four-portion pasta ready-meal tray, washed (!), and with a half-brick to weight it down, and some twigs so any small creatures don't drown in it... I just keep an eye on it and keep it topped up if rainfall isn't sufficient. 
Oh and B&Q sell orange buckets, 12-litre, for 89p each, and if you drill a few holes in he bottom and use some polystyrene 'peanuts from parcel-packaging in the bottom then you only need to use about 2/3 of th amount of compost and soil. Two tomato plants, a couple of petunias, some lobelia and French marigolds, and you get a load of gorgeous colour as well as tomatoes I grow my toms from seed in 2-litre plastic bottles with the top quarter almost cut off (ie stab with strong scissors, cut horizontally just below the 'shoulder' but leave a good inch uncut to be a hinge) - micro-greenhouses! I start them indoors on an unheated staircase, a dozen seeds per bottle, then when the seedlings are about an inch high, they go into my little mini-greenhouse, same as yours I think, a plastic overcoat over a flimsy metal frame? £9.99 from Poundstretcher... anyway, I bring the tom-bottles out when the seedlings are bigger and open up the tops to start hardening them off, closing the tops at night. 

Happy gardening! 

dND

Hello MMM World, I am still here

I've found this year a bit tough on the communicating front but have read the notifications that have appeared in my inbox.  I do hope that you are all doing well.

Dave, I giggled at your post and I admire your perseverance.  Well done!  It's all experience, and that's the way we grow as well, (and innovate and learn etc).

Thank you Laura for that excellent tip on making grow bottles.

And hi to everyone else, I've not been able to read back through - it's a stress thing - but as I've said I've read the emailed excerpts so I know that you've all been MMM-ing. 

I'm still stuck in France - sadly house prices have crashed around here as well as no buyers able to come over so I guess I'm going to be here for quite a while longer. .  I have been taking the enforced downtime to continue to downsize which translates to moving stuff to the barn as I can't go to the tip and the charity places have been closed.  I think that we're allowed out without having to fill in a form that only gives us limited reasons to go out, on Tuesday but I'll see what happens on that day as things change  

Apart from that everything else has to be patched/repaired and kept going until sell as the less I have to pack and transport when I do finally move, the better - old stuff will be junked and new bought in the UK if required there.

My yarn stash is slowly diminishing but that's more a transfer as the charity hats, scarves and blankets are stored in another bag ready for the UK

All in all, it's been an 'interesting' year hasn't it.  So fingers very firmly crossed that things are getting better. I don't know about you, but while individual days have seemed very long, the year feels short.  I was getting the Christmas decorations down from the loft and had the feeling that it was only a month or so ago that I'd put them up in the loft, not 10 months. 

So take care everyone and happy MMM-ing.

Deborah.xx