Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2021

nannygladys

Make do - eaten the last of the leftover soup for my lunch

Mend - not mended as such but, I was given a part done xstitch kit a long time ago, so I have been sat down the last two days undoing it all!! Anyway it's done, so I can make a start on it soon. I think it must have been done by a beginner as it was sited on the cloth in the wrong place and it was full of knots, but I hope the person wasn't put off by starting one so big.

Minimise - given some veggies to daughter from the allotment

I really dislike this predicted text, sometimes I can't make head nor tail of what I've written lol!
Nannyg

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,

Making do - this has been some journey this month without even realising as there is over £120 left of the Grocery budget for the month. Thats really been making a small impact in the freezer and using stores. Even dismantling a pillow case of the stitching to get a bit more from it to makes rags for the workshop shed. Dug out the tea towels that need a hook stitching onto them so they can be hung up, todays task whilst sat in the garden grabbing some vitamin D

Mend - will be stitching the other pillows to help them maintain their stuffiness too. Found some material in the loft which I had purchased to make new cushion covers with. That will be brought down on my next trip in there and worked on.  

Minimise - is definitely the less spending on the groceries. Its not likely to happen like that for a long time. Still it shows what can be done with a bit of determination and acceptance of trying things in a different way. DH wasn't always thrilled, as I said it was all part of the adventure

Keep going Peeps

2 Scratters

Laura_Elsewhere

Make-Do: I had planned to go to the shops this morning, partly to buy myself some lovely salad leaves as a treat for this evening's meal, but then we both slept badly and I couldn't be bothered with the 2-mile walk so I went, without much hope, to my neglected and unkempt guerilla-garden and now have a tea-towel full of washed organic food-yards salad - red chard, young nasturtium leaves and the un-bitter leaves of some nearly-bolted lettuce, lots of lovely chives - and a nasturtium flower, several heartsease flowers and a stalk of lavender fully-open, to scatter over the top colourfully and edibly! 

Mend: making a new skirt, the lining was askew making the front sit wrong so I undid it, added some extra and re-sewed it and now it sits as it should do. So I've mended it before it's even been finished  

Minimise: after My Intended had to admit he had not noticed that I had completely stopped using fabric-conditioner some 18 months ago, we finally found someone to offload the three unopened big-size bottles of the vile stuff onto! 

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Make Do & Minimise: Food from freezer
Mend: 4 T-shirts 

Siebrie

Mended: 2 pairs of dd2's tights, 1 duvet cover, 1 T-shirt, 3 socks, 2 wash mitts.

Minimised: 4 bags of winter clothes and rags to charity coming to pick them up (they come about 4x a year in our village).

1 large cardboard box and 1 medium backpack full of old (non-winter) clothes to relatives in Africa.

Make do: I'm trying to find an easy way to keep our 2 guinea pigs, as the straw is giving my husband the sneezes (according to him ... I think he just needs to hoover his sofa properly). I am now putting an old towel in their cage and changing it daily. It seems to work.

Wraithlady

Make do - instead of buying a box for my embroidery threads, I covered an old ice-cream container in scrap fabric and embroidered (in the loosest sense of the word) 'Threads' on the lid. Also using some very cheap 'n' nasty fabric I have to make a trial-run of a Regency dress before I buy the actual material for it.

Mend: patched some jeans and let out the bottom side seams on a top so it now fits nicely at hip-level

Minimised: bag of stuff to the charity shop, old pair of OH's trousers cut up for rags and zip/buttons removed for later projects

MrsCD

@Siebrie, is the straw just for bedding? You can use wood shavings or felt type liners for their cage.

calleyw

After about a year I got round to stitching up the holes in the thighs of my gym leggings. Much prefer those as they are black to the bright coloured ones I often wear to save wear and tear on my jeans that seem to shred in the thigh area!!!! Thats the issue with having thick thighs 

Laura_Elsewhere

calleyw said:

After about a year I got round to stitching up the holes in the thighs of my gym leggings. Much prefer those as they are black to the bright coloured ones I often wear to save wear and tear on my jeans that seem to shred in the thigh area!!!! Thats the issue with having thick thighs 

It's also the issue with denim that has stretch fibres added to make them more figure-hugging without the expense of proper design and cutting differently for different sizes, aka 'pattern grading'... by adding stretch, they can save a lot of money but the fabric is no longer hard-wearing so anywhere that gets any amount of friction or daylight-exposure will disintegrate far faster... which means you buy another pair, so it's win-win for the manufacturers! 

I's why we all remember jeans lasting years and just getting softer and paler, but now you can't actually do that any more... 

goldfinches

Laura_Elsewhere said:

calleyw said:

After about a year I got round to stitching up the holes in the thighs of my gym leggings. Much prefer those as they are black to the bright coloured ones I often wear to save wear and tear on my jeans that seem to shred in the thigh area!!!! Thats the issue with having thick thighs 

It's also the issue with denim that has stretch fibres added to make them more figure-hugging without the expense of proper design and cutting differently for different sizes, aka 'pattern grading'... by adding stretch, they can save a lot of money but the fabric is no longer hard-wearing so anywhere that gets any amount of friction or daylight-exposure will disintegrate far faster... which means you buy another pair, so it's win-win for the manufacturers! 

I's why we all remember jeans lasting years and just getting softer and paler, but now you can't actually do that any more... 

Just popping my head round the door to say that diligent searching of charity shops has meant that I own a couple of pairs of lovely, thick and soft jeans which I intend to hang onto for as long as possible. They are fairly scarce but quite easy to spot by simply feeling with your hands along the fabrics hanging on the trouser rail and stopping at the ones that feel lovely.