Make do and mend - how did your parents or grandparents exemplify this

[AceAcer]

I've been clearing out my mum's house recently, and came across so many amateurish repairs (a dish held together with sellotape!), a darning mushroom and of course the tea stained saucer for all the teabags to go in because "there's far more than one cup in that!".

It got me to thinking more about our disgraceful disposable culture now, and I wondered if there were any quirky or funny examples of frugality out there, which maybe need resurrecting (or not, as the case may be).

Knitting's not really a dying art, although people these days are doing it for different reasons.

My grannies were both demon knitters, out of necessity. Woollen jumpers were very expensive and it was far better value to knit yarn up into a jumper which could be extended with extra stripes or borders, then ripped out and the yarn used for other things. Fast fashion changed all that. Good quality wool yarn or yarn made from other quality fibres like alpaca, linen or silk is expensive. Those of us who knit are doing it for pleasure, not because we have to.

I'm a big repurposing fan, made patchwork quilts from old fabric in the past for all the kids and turned a few of DH's old work shirts into summer dresses for my daughter when she was of pre-school age.

I honestly don't remember them gluing things together etc and my parents certainly didn't make do and mend. My gran however in her words would run a mile to save a penny! Even though she didn't need to as she got older. She did darn socks etc . My mum didn't sew stuff she just bought new.

I’ve seen knitting and crocheting on planes recently having not seen it for years. Someone crocheting from Brussels, someone knitting to Dubai, I knitted from China and again to/from Vienna (and saw someone else knitting at departure gates going to Vienna!). It’s a nice way to use the “dead time” on flights

Fast fashion changed all that.

My dad was born in the 50’s, one of nine children in rural Ireland. All clothes were made by their mum. From wool, flour sacks, bed sheets, anything she could find. He has regaled me many times with the story of how a box arrived one Christmas (it would have been early 60’s by then) from the “American cousins”. inside were the cousins’ outgrown clothes which included denim and sweaters with words on them! my dad said it was one of the best christmases he ever had. He said all his friends were so jealous and used to ask to take turns wearing his sweater. His mum said it was a useless thing because it couldn’t be remade as anything else or added too to fit as he grew.

My Dad made all the fitted wardrobes in our house, vanity units in loo, a dolls' house for me when I was a child, and my Mum made all my clothes, darned socks, and like others on this thread, sides-to-middled sheets, squished soap, etc. Almost everything was repaired or re-used - very little was thrown away. Totally unlike our own lifestyle now, though I am trying to take a leaf out of their book now and re-use a lot more.

I've got a darning mushroom that was my mother's, and it's made of bakelite. And yes, I can darn, but not many clothes call for it now sadly. I can also remember the collection of darning wool, which was on card, in every sock colour you could think of. Clothes in the 50s were expensive, and she used to darn my dad's woolen socks, and also use the shirt tails to make shirt repairs. Shirt tails were much bigger in those days, they almost came down to my dad's knees.
One thing I carry on is the use of poultry carcasses to make stock with. It is always the basis for a good soup with odds and sods of veg, and I still strip off the meat off the long simmered carcass for the dog, so all that's left is a pile of bones. I like to get my money's worth.
The turkey carcass soup after Christmas was wonderful.

I darn @Lucisky . And I am very jealous.
I have brought out my epic darning skills twice in the last two years.
I had a pair of wool hiking socks that I sleep in and I've had them for 30 years (ok, I'm old) but they are fab. They developed a hole. No match for me, though.

My grandparents were quiet poor when they first married. They had friends road to tea and my grandma made lettuce sandwiches for their guests. The next day for dinner she somehow put the leftover sandwiches into a pie and that was their dinner. It sounds vile to me but shows how frugal they needed to be. They ended up being extremely comfortable due o my grandfathers job once he had qualified, but remained frugal and careful with their spending their whole lives.

Another food related one - I once caught my mother freezing a single poppadom for another day. I think that is more to do with her obsession with freezing things though. She will freeze half an open packet of crisps - it’s bizarre.

Quite not quiet!

My mum had a book of knitting patterns designed for growing children. Whereas a sleeve usually has a seam underneath, from armpit to wrist, these patterns were deigned with the seam on top, from shoulder to wrist. This was so that you could knit a long strip, unpick the seam and insert the strip to widen the arm. Then, if needed, you knitted an extension around the wrist, too. But that was rarely needed because cuffs were usually knitted long enough to fold back. The body would also be widened by knitting strips and inserting them at the seams. The patterns gave version with seams in different places so that the stripe effect varied according to which pattern mum had originally knitted.