tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post6628621530999678363..comments2013-03-29T11:16:03.778-04:00Comments on Living A Vintage Life: Reduce, Reuse, RecycleKass McGannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07778931578775703585noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-59650358470225266292008-04-04T14:00:00.000-04:002008-04-04T14:00:00.000-04:00Funny you should mention that... I was just readin...Funny you should mention that... I was just reading a blog post called <A HREF="" REL="nofollow">"Shopping Strategies of Millionaires: Buy Used or Buy Quality"</A>. <BR/><BR/>I've also been reading the Tightwad Gazette (borrowed from my library); she recommends buying used, high-quality items from thrift stores. Unfortunately the thrift stores near me are full of cheap crap from WalMart, so eBay is my thrift store. Yes, I pay for shipping, but I'm still ahead buying a good wool blazer, linen skirt, or quality shoes even factoring shipping into the cost, since these items cost the same as or less than full retail for a cheaper, lower-quality equivalent in regular stores.<BR/><BR/>Plus I figure eBay is a form of recycling :)Corbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00924421679379827065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-12594791888335610152008-04-02T09:44:00.000-04:002008-04-02T09:44:00.000-04:00No problem. The internet makes everything seem loc...No problem. The internet makes everything seem local but then reality sets in...<BR/><BR/> I'm not sure what the local history in clothing is. This area was settled in the late 1800s to early 1900s so fairly recently. Our farm was settled in 1903 and our orchard was planted in 1905. Our ditch decree is from 1884 and is one of the earliest in the valley. It was only legal for white settlement since 1880. <BR/><BR/>When I was a kid we had a nice clothing store in town but they went belly-up between when I left and when I came back. I think about the same time as the shopping mall went in at the city 75 miles away. <BR/><BR/>I am trying to learn sewing, but it's frustrating with no one to ask for help when I get stuck and I'm timid in trying things. I can get lots of help quilting, we have a thriving quilt business, enough local quilters to keep 6+ long arm quilters fully booked a year or more in advance finishing tops local folks make. <BR/><BR/>And our own farm shop is developing into a resource for local knitters and weavers with locally produced yarns and we've started some limited classes (held a naalbinding one last fall and some informal spinning and tatting ones this winter) but no one does much sewing as such. <BR/><BR/>I should ask the Mennonite ladies, they sew all their own stuff, it's simple styles but perhaps they would give lessons. <BR/><BR/>I'll persevere but it may take a while, esp. now, we're going to be lambing in less than 3 weeks.Oogie McGuirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02497545190647459093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-71139705322887803022008-04-01T21:42:00.000-04:002008-04-01T21:42:00.000-04:00Oh "heck" hon, I wasn't trying to 'one up' you or ...Oh "heck" hon, I wasn't trying to 'one up' you or anything... I just thought that perhaps there was an alternative resource/venue you could try. Where do you live? I haven't a clue.. and it makes a huge difference. I still say, the internet makes anyplace alocal resource.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17522221902778512522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-67656090296325533912008-04-01T18:13:00.000-04:002008-04-01T18:13:00.000-04:00I don't know if it was the case where you are, Oog...I don't know if it was the case where you are, Oogie, but in some rural areas, itinerant tailors would visit clients and live in their out buildings or guest rooms while doing their tailoring for the year. Cloth would be bought in advance and the tailors would sew it up in the client's home. So it is possible that your area of the country never had a tailoring trade.<BR/><BR/>Of course even in areas where there were tailors there aren't anymore. Anne is talking about the DC area and Coral Gables, both are highly-populated and wealthy areas. I'm not surprised she has no trouble finding a tailor.<BR/><BR/>But take heart! Since the idea of having clothing made/fit by a tailor goes hand-in-hand with having better-made clothing that lasts longer, it really *is* worth the trip to the big city to have your clothing made.Kass McGannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07778931578775703585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-80009789914334318942008-04-01T17:36:00.000-04:002008-04-01T17:36:00.000-04:00The dry cleaners does not do any sewing at all, th...The dry cleaners does not do any sewing at all, there is only one in the whole county. We have 2 retail clothing stores in our area and neither has anything other than Carhartt and jeans type stuff. I've even asked around. There are a couple ladies who are known for altering prom dresses but they have never done a garment from scratch and won't attempt a tailored jacket. <BR/><BR/>I've looked in the yellow pages under tailors, custom sewing, clothing, sewing and haven't found anything. What am I missing? or is it just one of the hazards of living in a very rural area.....<BR/><BR/>I've never even made it to Denver Fabric, that's a 6 hour drive away and it's probably the nearest store with real fabrics.Oogie McGuirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02497545190647459093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-30224731937076055492008-04-01T14:50:00.000-04:002008-04-01T14:50:00.000-04:00"can't even find a tailor..." That's interesting. ..."can't even find a tailor..." That's interesting. I recently moved and went from knowing of at least 4 people who did alterations and custom work, (that was in Frederick MD) to here (Coral Springs, FL) where there seems to be yet another tailor every other block. And every laundry/dry cleaner has a sign that they do custom sewing as well. <BR/><BR/>When it comes to buying good cloth (I sew too) I rely on the internet: There's faddy stuff at JoAnn's but I can't seem to get good plain wool, linen or silk anywhere anymore. <BR/><BR/>Of course, if one's in the DC area, there's G Street fabrics, and when I travel to NYC for vacations or such, I always visit the fashion district.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17522221902778512522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-73007903256893352742008-04-01T11:18:00.000-04:002008-04-01T11:18:00.000-04:00One problem is that you can't even *find* well mad...One problem is that you can't even *find* well made good stuff to buy. <BR/><BR/>I'm currently looking for 2 clothing items. A really nice "posh frock" so I have one really good dress for the rare occasions when I need one. I have a 2 piece black velvet outfit that I bought almost 15 years ago. It's still stylish but I look deathly ill in black, I'm a more spring color type and I really need something not so somber for around here. All I can find that fits is crap in man-made fibers sewn like junk. I want a nice wool or linen dress, but they are not to be found. <BR/><BR/>The other thing I'm looking for is a very nice tailored 1 or 2 button blazer and pants set in a really good wool in either a bright clear navy blue or a nice cream color. Not only can't I find anything that's tailored but I can't even find anything in good wool. <BR/><BR/>My sewing skills are not up to doing it myself but I was tempted so I looked for fabric, no decent worsted wool yet in 2 fabric stores over the last several months. <BR/><BR/>It's hard to buy good well made clothing and there are no tailors locally that are listed in the phone book. (Local is within 100 miles of here.)Oogie McGuirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02497545190647459093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-24980775652016862122008-04-01T10:12:00.000-04:002008-04-01T10:12:00.000-04:00Hi there K. Nope, I'm not Marie, I'm Maricelt. L...Hi there K. Nope, I'm not Marie, I'm Maricelt. Looks like I have a few posts to catch up on . More later.M Stewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05292073818577914725noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-64374261338863667152008-03-31T04:02:00.000-04:002008-03-31T04:02:00.000-04:00Good post. We try to recycle as much as possible, ...Good post. <BR/>We try to recycle as much as possible, but in the most obvious places we have no choice. Milk used to be available in glass bottles, but nowadays there's only 2 liter plastic bottles or 1.5 liter cartons - both of which are not easy to recycle. In the Netherlands, there is no seperate system for collecting plastic (yet, they are supposedly working on a system).<BR/>And if I look at our trashcan, there's a lot of plastic and foodremains in there. Maybe just because we recycle the rest and there's no seperate reclamation for food scraps. I wish for a garden, so I can do my own compost.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-13177420498152254912008-03-30T23:50:00.000-04:002008-03-30T23:50:00.000-04:00Good post. I've been mending a few favorite cardig...Good post. I've been mending a few favorite cardigans for years, and also a vest -- wool that got mildly attacked some years ago, but I seem to have contained the problem to three articles of clothing, where every now and then one of them gets a small hole. The mends on L's old work pants are quite obvious, since he tends to rip them in inconvenient places for a logical-looking patch. Then again, he had me do the patches in a contrasting fabric, simply because they are for doing dirty work around the farm in and he thinks more people ought to be less worried about a perfect appearance if all they're doing is mucking out the barn. Eventually though, those sorry pants will fail despite patching, at which point I hope to replace them with linen pants (homemade, of course). And then, the raggedy pants will likely be cut into strips to make rugs.<BR/><BR/>I've thought about doing some more tailored clothing, but since I actually seem to be finally succeeding at losing weight again... well, I'll practice on simpler clothing first, and work my way up to the nicer stuff when I'm a bit lighter.<BR/><BR/>I have a rather nice collection of linens and wools to work with too!<BR/><BR/>On other things, L used to have a fountain pen, until it failed one day... he hasn't had to buy a disposable pen in many years though -- they keep showing up. He has a box of them at this point... I do still use Pigma pens for artwork (until they die, of course, which takes a while). I tried a technical pen and it died faster than the disposables, despite my best care in cleaning it. But maybe I should look into getting L a new fountain pen...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-8732118682594946732008-03-30T22:22:00.000-04:002008-03-30T22:22:00.000-04:00Doing my part to reduce the amount of stuff in lan...Doing my part to reduce the amount of stuff in landfills by collecting old torn-up jeans and turning them into dog toys. :)<BR/><BR/>That said, great post and I agree with it all. Trying to declutter but tough to do when starting a business. I'm getting rid of stuff but more comes in. Ah well, people will buy things and then I'll have less again. :)<BR/><BR/>Tempted to go neo-luddite and start writing things with dip pens...Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00469586369675197872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-17563515336873486292008-03-30T21:48:00.000-04:002008-03-30T21:48:00.000-04:00It kind of disappoints me how much we DON'T NEED t...It kind of disappoints me how much we DON'T NEED to reuse because it makes reusing too much of a chore with little gain. These things people did were creative and clever, which is attractive to start with, and they had less clutter and their possessions had more value, which is also an attractive prospect. However, is it worth a modern person to go to this kind of effort when we can just buy more? <BR/>This is not an argument against your point, but an expression of regret in a way that we don't NEED to value what we have. It's all just cheap, throwaway, replaceable. Obviously this is good in some ways - it's good to have abundance.<BR/>I wonder why, though, we don't use our abundance and technology to make things that are BETTER; why do we mostly produce just more and more crappy rubbish?!<BR/>Hopefully though we can implement "reduce, reuse, recycle" in appropriate ways that fit in with our modern lifestyle - for example, disposable pens are ugly, surely we deserve better than that!<BR/><BR/>Good blog post :) If you wish to write more on this issue with respects to fabric and clothing, it would be fascinating reading. (hint, hint, feel free to write more!)standgalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11705434652330242519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-619631493037144832.post-46338872953766596142008-03-30T17:35:00.000-04:002008-03-30T17:35:00.000-04:00I actually learned about remaking clothes from Lou...I actually learned about remaking clothes from Louisa May Alcott "An Old fashioned Girl" not one of the better known of her books, discusses the reversal of fortune of the family: one of the things they do is go through the girls' wardrobes,, rip apart the gowns, and remake them inside out to use the unstained/unfaded side of the fabric ('turning one's gowns')They also cut one that was too badly stained down for a younger child, and used scraps to trim their hats. This was one of the first things I remembered when I started getting into discussions with Ren Faire folks about making kid's clothes: and of course the research I'd been doing pointed out how often trims or detail work was on things in order to extend it's life.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17522221902778512522noreply@blogger.com