General Chat

We make our own bread, well a machine does, so I re-use the bags I store them in in the freezer they have been used 100s of times.

Just realised, I'm sat here, with a laptop, at my g gran's sewing table, that was, judging from how unusual it is, hand made!
It even has a section from a piano stool for storing patterns.
Goodness knows where g gran got it from, it's unlikely she could have afforded it new!
So, there's every chance, this was made by g grandad out of spare wood, or bought /given to g gran by someone else. Either way, it has been recycled many a time.

Yes my Dad had a shoe last too!

We also occasionally used it to prop open the back door.

Dad used to reheel our shoes for school, and put Blakeys on the corner to give them even more wear.

We must have sounded like soldiers marching down the street.

If you scraped them on concrete you could get sparks off segs (Blakeys) :-D :-D :-D. My dad used to make do and mend lots of things as does my OH

LG I make do and mend too, I think it is second nature to some of us born 1950s or before.

Maggie that is something else. Spare wood, my Dad rarely bought new wood things would be made from other things. And my OH was the same. Since T died in January I have been on a sorting out mission. The garage (can't be done by one person so I mainly wait for daughter and her OH to come down, as they are tomorrow). is full of tools (now all the golf stuff has been found a home) and hundreds of screws and nails etc. But I knew that. What I didn't really know was, all down the side is stored pieces of offcuts of wood. so, when he was making boxes (for plants in the garden) for example, he kept the bits he didn't use. He did buy wood new but used every bit of it.

For many of us, as has been said, it is second nature to reuse or save things. Being raised just after the war, raw items were either too expensive and /or in short supply so nobody wasted anything.
I remember having a coat that had once been my mother's.
It was wool and a lovely shade of blue, but after several years wearing by mum it had faded. No problem. It was unpicked at the seams, the material reversed and a coat was cut out for me to wear ( with plenty of 'growing' room ! )
After I'd eventually outgrown it, it was passed down to my younger sister.

Although I haven't remade garments like that for my own children, I have saved material from sheets and thus helped kit out a few school plays.

Growing up, I loved to hunt through our button box to find matching sets and if we came across some Army buttons, we were particularly pleased. There was usually a suitable set ready to sew on when mum knitted us a new cardigan.
I think maybe buttons were cut off a garment once it was totally finished with and before it went for 'rags'.

Does anyone keep a button box these days?

I still have a tin of buttons, a mixture of mine and my mothers.

Oh Gwyn.
As I've said before, my gran was a bit of a hoarder.
We found at least 3 tins of buttons.
I have one (I think - it could be 2), I mean, you can't throw them out can you?
My ambition is, once I retire, or once I've finished redecorating this place, whichever comes soonest, in days of boredom, I will go through the tin(s) and sort the buttons in to sets. Those worth money, I will sell, others, I will give to charity shops.
I have to admit to adding to the button box :-S

I was told that our dad wanted my brother to have some 'sparking boots' as he'd had fun with himself as a boy. Mother wouldn't hear of it :-(

I 'make do and mend' because I'm a tight wad LOL but also very creative.
As a former fashion student I've never been a fashion victim.

Does anyone remember the ladies, who used to sit in shop windows working away making invisible repairs to stockings?
They had the garment stretched over a lamp, so that everyone could see how well they worked.
I don't recall mum ever going to get a repair done there, though.

I can't remember the last time I wore tights, but although I don't mend them, I do chop some into 'ties' for use in the garden, when I want a soft means of supporting a plant with a stick.
Old T shirts have also been utilised this way in the past.

I must admit that I threw the button tin away, it was hanging about and I have never had use for old buttons.

Fred's bedding has been used to line a shoulder bag I made for my mate and there is a rose garden patchwork coming along with his bedding as background, there is some in hexagon lavender bags as well.

Somebody left a pair of curtains here that he had been using as dust sheets. They have hung around long enough for me to wash them and cut them up to make a rag rug which is already promised so I had better get on with it. The middle is going to have to be some of my old clothes, including my harvest festivals, which really have all been washed and cut up.

I do have a set of Kilners now for my own pickles and marmalade but, if I am giving some away, it goes in old Branston jars usually.

We usually use soap nuts for the washing but, if I have enough bits of bar soap, I will grind them up and make a batch of washing powder.

Have been pretty lax with my Scroogeing ways since I lot the plot but it is coming back, saving orange peel to make candied peel for baking and only ever buying our pretty rare take-aways from places that have the re-usable containers that are so useful for the freezer and for storing things.

Funny I was going to mention a button box!

I have two, one for fancy buttons, which include duck and teddy buttons, and one with just shirt buttons which I add to when we buy new shirt/blouses and cut off the spares that are included on the side seam.

I learned my lesson the hard way. Did not see the spares, and ironed the blouse, and made a hole in the seam. Silly Billy. :-( :-(

I have a number of button boxes, mostly inherited from family, but people give me haberdashery items rather than throwing them away, then they come and ask if they need anything. The granddaughter likes to rumage through the buttons and goes off with some, she's very crafty minded.

Mom had a button tin which we used to play with on rainy days . sorting into colours and sizes kept us quiet foe a while. I don't have one just a small plastic box with a few shirt buttons in.

The thing with charity shops now is that people donate things that we would have found useful but the customers now don't want and so much gets thrown away. Buttons and knitting patterns and needles are very rarely kept, I have worked in 2 charity shops and the amount of donated goods that gets thrown into the bins is vast. The main big charities sell so many 'new goods' ranges that they don't want the cheaper donated items so just bin them. I love the smaller shops were you can have a good mooch around and sometimes find a little gem .
We did find that some people use charity shops to dump stuff that they know won't be saleable but they can't be bother to take to the tip.

When I got back into patchwork after many years, I found that buying fabric was a very different matter with a whole new industry having grown up around it.

Fabric is usually sold in 5" squares and they are not cheap.

I wonder if some enterprising charity might be missing an opening here. I know a lot of textiles get bundled up and sent to who knows where from charity shops.

Just thought there might be a bit of profit in cutting out good bits to sell for patchwork. People who can't otherwise volunteer could be cutting it up at home..

My sisters friend was in a fancy dress competition in the 60s, she went as a pearly queen, her mother made a dress with a cut down dress of her own, my mother and I sorted through button tin and ended up with enough pearly buttons to cover the dress.

Don't throw away - pas it on.

Charity shops do indeed throw things away or sell to rag merchants.

Anything reusable, give to Crow recycling. There are loads of crafters and recyclers who would be happy to increase their 'stash'.