I couldn't help smiling as I read your story. That is the good old virtue of thrift that has mostly gotten lost today. Thrift was a very important virtue for the old folks in New England, where I was born and brought up, and my husband's mother who brought up 5 children in Japan virtually alone after WWII, was thrifty like that. DH takes after her to some extent and kept a blue windbreaker for 20 years until it fell apart and was too frayed to be mended. Fortunately we happened on almost exactly the same fabric on a trip to Vancouver in the late '80s, and I made a copy of the old windbreaker, which he has been wearing ever since. He sometimes expresses a worry about whether we can find more of that fabric for when this one wears out!

I know I'm getting old when I want to start a story with 'This younger generation." I agree there is too much throw it away - just replace it. GS's ex-girlfriend paid her respects at the viewing. When she introduced me to her companion, she commented on my saving everything and not throwing anything away. Anyway this is my mantra:

Buy it new,
Wear it out,
Make it do
Or do without.

My mother was an accomplished sewer and mostly out of necessity, made most of our clothes. I remember a coat she made me in 3rd grade out of an adults coat. Only problem was, it was black, and she put a hood on it, lined the coat with red, and I thought it was really pretty until the other kids started teasing me that I was "the witch -lookout, here comes the witch!" I told Mom, and the coat was replaced. I found myself, again out of necessity, taking a blue linen garment apart and sewing a little Sunday coat for my 1st DD for Easter one year when she was about 4 - it turned out SO cute - I had a little white lace collar on it. I'm still frugal, it seems, can't break old habits.

When I was a child we lived next door to a family with 2 teenage daughters. They gave mom a couple of sundresses that they had outgrown. My mom took them apart and made me two sundresses with little bolero jackets. I'm sure she made other things from hand-me-downs but those are two dresses I remember.
Linda OH

Great thread, clueless! I have a set of bath towels that I've resuscitated several times. They're a stripe in blue, green, white and khaki and go perfectly in the bathroom in our old house. When the long edges started to sprong wayward threads I overcast them in matching thread in a multiple zigzag stitch. Those need to be done again. When the first layer of the folded over/hemmed short sides started to disappear, I bought a roll of bias cut tricot and hand stitched it over the hem, hiding the cut sides under the terry loops. I've done that about three times since the tricot seems to shred in a few areas.

Currently they are in suspended animation in a basement closet and I'm using solid blue and green towels which look only OK. Maybe I should look into buying a serger and serging with a fuzzy thread or something. The terry part is in great shape, as bright as ever. Every couple of months I check out the internet for striped replacements and nothing comes close.

Sharon C.

My Mom has always saved the zippers and buttons from clothing to worn out to wear any longer. I do too. She also uses what is salvagable for other things.
Recently, she used the knitted tops of my Dads old worn out socks, and the sleeves of one of her worn out sweat shirts and made their dog two sweaters.
In the 80's I had this cotton dress that I loved. After the snaps could no longer be mended again, and the cuffs were worn out beyond repair, I cut it up and made pillow cases for my Son. He loved the pillow cases, and never put the dress he had seen me wear many times and the 'new' pillow cases together.

I also had to get rid of an old favorite chair. Before hauling it off, I carefully took off the leather upholstry and kept it. I then used the material to recover a couple chairs.

I always thought I was a pack rat, but maybe I'm really just as Biwako_of_abi said--Thrifty!!

I like that.

doris=^.^=

We still have my husband's teddybear from when he was little, and I'll just say he's over 60. I still have his Christening dress, slip and shoes. Our children wore those at their baptism.

"I know I'm getting old when I want to start a story with 'This younger generation." I agree there is too much throw it away - just replace it."

It isn't really as much a generational thing as you think, glassquilt. Things in previous generations were built quality and lasted. Most of my things are too worn to be given to charity by the time I am done with them, because they fall apart. Real quality is hard to come by nowadays.Things are built so they have to be replaced, and true longlasting quality is out of the reach of most people.

I to am thrifty,i try to find new uses for a lot of things.For instance,i saved some of those trays(like meat trays) that candy and other things come in and use them on my desk to hold pens and pencils.I also used the boxes that my checks came in to hold pens,markers,pencils and other misc stuff in the desk drawers.I also use thenm when painting,small projects or tole painting to put the paint in.

I save my pill bottles for seeds from my garden after they have dried out.I also have been known to recycle the bubble mailing envelopes if they weren't destroyed in the opening of them.And i always take out zippers,take off buttons etc b4 trashing clothes that are no longer usable.

Did you know that you can also use certain kinds of socks to put on the sleeves of tops you have made,if you couldn't find ribbing??
Kathi

I am smiling here, it seems we all had or have the same Mother. All this makes me think of my dear Mother.

Thanks for the memories.

Kathy

OH and here is another one I don't know how but one of my dads 9 sisters got their grandmothers coat she died in about 1940 and I'm sure she had not had a new coat in many years.

My aunts came up with the idea of gettin an old fashioned teddy bear pattern like the original teddy bear and making all the siblings a teddy bear. 12 total.

I took this a step further and was the 1st of over 40 neices and nephews to ask for just a scrap of that coat I would have been happy witha 1 inch square. But my aunt pieced together the scraps and believe me they was scraps and made me a little flat bear front that was about 5 inches tall the back was just a piece of satin type lining material she had and she apolgized for not having enough material for the back.

YES there has been many many make overs in my family. I remember mom had a piece of light brown double knit that she used for a table cloth for special occassions for 20 yrs then decided she wanted a pair of pants that color.

Of course I've always teased her asked her if she was gonna make a table cloth out of those pants when she gets tired of them. LOL

Then there was the pants mom bought at a yard sale for a dime that was marked a size 10 she took them home laid them out and cut out a pair of size 14 pants out of them. Apparently the pants was much bigger than a size 10 LOL

I just figured out what we won't let die. My hubby's jeans! He has several pairs of Levi's. They date from before he met me. When he started spending a lot of time outdoors on the tractor to do lawn work, lop branches off trees, mend fences, etc., they started to get holes in the knees. So I patched them. (It was a great way to practice free motion quilting.) When the patches started to let loose, I patched them again. He wears them until the crotch rips out. (A few have actually found their way into the trash.) Hey, they look awful, but he can get grease and dirt all over them and not care what happens to them, even if it leads to their ultimate demise.

"Things in previous generations were built quality and lasted. Most of my things are too worn to be given to charity by the time I am done with them, because they fall apart. Real quality is hard to come by nowadays.Things are built so they have to be replaced, and true longlasting quality is out of the reach of most people."

* * *

I agree completely. I think its partly a generational shift in mentality but it is true that most items are not made the way they used to be. We just had to buy a new vacuum cleaner, as our old panasonic died after about 20 years. The new ones are cheaper in both price and quality, even the current version of the same model. People would rather (it seems) buy something that costs less and that they will have to replace in several years. Chicken or the egg theory, I wonder which came first, the shift in mentality or the shift in quality? Either way, they don't make em like they used to!

Out TV set is more than 30 years old, and still works just fine. Weighs a ton, too!

When I got married (and it was only 10 years ago) I was thrilled to take anything I was given to kit out my new house. I had second hand furniture and we bought a second hand kitchen and were delighted with ourselves. Ireland has changed a lot in those ten years, we got rich and people today getting married would rather get into huge debt buying the best of everything for their new homes than take someone else's cast-offs. It's all about NOW.My Mam is a very thrifty woman. She was brought up with very little money in the country and had thrift bred into her. "Keep a thing long enough and you'll find use for it" is her motto still. (You should see her attic- she throws nothing out!!) Some of that has rubbed off on me and my sister.

I think in the current climate of global warming, people have to go back to those thrifty ways. We don't have to be as thrifty maybe, butjust to think about the things we buy and why we're buying them. It takes energy to produce all these things that people keep buying and more energy to dispose of the things they're throwing away.

Imelda

I think part of it is the cost of labor. It's cheaper to buy a new 'thing' than pay to have it repaired. We'd get that in the store. DH would quote the repair price and half the time the customer would gasp "It cost me less than that when I bought it!" To which DH would answer "Go buy another one. I don't work for a bowl of rice."