Make Do, Mend & Minimise in 2025 (and 2024)

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Just got back from holiday & whilst sorting the washing discovered a hole in some base layer trousers & fixed it BEFORE washing 😉

Cherryfudge

Make do/minimise - we took a picnic lunch on a day out despite there being a very nice café where we went (to which we went for afternoon tea, sshh!)

Used our annual pass for 'free' entry.

That's it for today.

Nelliegrace

I spent some time very carefully unpicking the fancy initial on a vintage, cotton lawn handkerchief with a Quick-unpick. Washed and pressed, it looks perfect. 
A friend in Japan says that everyone carries a handkerchief for drying hands as paper towels and hot air hand dryers are not provided. 

Green_hopeful

Make do. I made rough puff pastry as per Gordon Ramsey and used the left over chicken and sausages from the roast and three mushrooms from the bottom of the fridge to make a pie. I made a white wine sauce to go in it. Quick roasted some new potatoes to go with it. It was really delicious. We had it yesterday and today with some chips. 

Minimise. We all had a quick kondo of our wardrobes. Pretty much a tidy. I had got loads of matching hangers from my in laws so everything is nice and tidy. Probably only got rid of 20 items between us but it shows we have been good before. 

Mend. Fixed a hanging off button before it finally fell off!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Make Do & Minimise: Food from freezers & fridge
Mend: DSis’s 40ish year old top - repaired all the holes, neatened up all the frayed edges + unpicked the collar & restitched upside down 😉 Frayed edges now hidden 😉

Green_hopeful

Mend This one is funny. I snapped a nail back and it is split too close to cut so I need to protect it while it grows a bit longer. I looked on Google and it said to use clear nail varnish and a bit of teabag as a wrap. It’s a miracle it works. Not sure how long it will be ok but I kept some teabag for additional repairs. I think polyester teabags would be best but I couldn’t be bothered to google which teabags were made with not biodegradable material. 

Cherryfudge

That's a really nifty tip, @Green_hopeful!

I have minimised a handful of papers that weren't needed any more and went to look in the embroidery stash for thread to repair a hole that's developing on the top edge of fabric trainers - and discovered I don't have grey. They seem to do every colour but... grey embroidery? I might take the shoes to the haberdashery next week sometime to match colours.

I've also started a repair on a PJ vest top: cut the old straps off and taken the 'bra-top' lining out, cut said lining length-wise and now intend to make it into wide, comfy straps. I could do it by hand but really need to get my sewing machine set up, so this is yet another repair on the pile until I can sort all that out. The machine is a bit tricky so I keep putting it off, but if I have it set up (which involves clearing space so I can use the little table I set aside for it), then I can ask competent sewers for help whenever I capture a passing one.

DH is sanding down a wooden worktop that had discoloured, and will oil it later, so that counts as a mend to me.

YorksLass

Mend:
I've shortened the very wide net curtain and, after pinning the new top channel in place, decided against sewing it by hand.  Instead I used the sewing machine that's also had a "mend" in that I cleaned/oiled it first and put in a new needle.  I also filled some spools with the most used colour threads so they're ready for use.  I used to do a lot of dressmaking but not much nowadays, so the fabric stash is on the cards to be pruned down at some stage.

Make Do:
Still using up freezer contents and this week I've made a list of all the little bits that are in there in the hope I can use them up - could be some "interesting" meals being served.    It won't make a lot of space I know, but at least they'll not be buried in there for eternity!  

Yesterday I made two apple pies, one for now and one for the freezer, and used the pastry trimmings for two small mincemeat pasties.  I scraped some crystallised honey out of its jar and used that instead of sugar for the apple filling, another jar gone from the cupboard.

Minimise:
Since my last post I've cut DH's hair for him and I've been to the hairdresser's for a trim too.  

Savings:
Today I saved 77p using Co-op membership offers and have added that to my little pot (total now stands at £10.13) and the £2 coin jar was boosted by another £4 (£30 so far).

Green_hopeful

Mend. I bought some butterfly net for my cauliflowers. Mostly to stop the pigeons that attack everything in our garden. While I was making the new cages I ‘repaired’ my old cage. When I say repair I mean tied the corners back together with purple string as there isn’t much wood left. I put new net on top. Looks tidy if you don’t look too closely. 

Cherryfudge

Purple string adds a touch of pizzaz, @Green_hopeful.

I was tidying the windowsill of doom (one of them, I can't leave a windowsill bare) and minimised dead leaves off the big spider plant that dominates one end, but at the other end I found various things that had gone missing. Behind the curtain was DH's stash of stamps, which will save some costs in future. There was also the rivet that came off a pair of jeans recently, then vanished. I've reattached it between typing. Having another pair of jeans will be handy.

Earlier, I sewed up a seam split on a jumper of DH's, so the mending side of things is getting back on track.