Sides to Middle

Only older readers will know what I’m talking about. The Good Old Days when worn sheets were not discarded, but cut down the middle, flipped round so the edges became the centre to be joined together, and the middles re-hemmed as edges. Reader, we still have such a sheet. Pink flannelette, and doing duty as a protective under- sheet. It was already old, already sides-to-middled when I was a small child. I reckon it’s at least 100 years old.

But I’m that make-do-and-mend generation. Only the other month, my husband asked whether we could find a seamstress in town who could turn the collar on a favourite shirt so he could get some more wear out of it. I drew the line at that one. I reckoned it would cost far more than a new shirt.

What about you? Do you make-do-and-mend? Do you buy soap ahead of needing it, so it can dry out in the airing cupboard and therefore last longer? Or maybe you have other strategies that make any Generation-Whatevers roll their eyes heavenwards. Please own up in the comments.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

50 thoughts on “Sides to Middle”

  5. You taught me something. MumP taught me about colors but not sheets. She was Yorkshire and went through the War so she saved and reused string, bags etc . Dad collected nails and anything left in a skip was turned into stools, cupboards , tables etc. I am not so great at it! Interesting post thank you.

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  6. Wracking my brains for thrifty habits, Margaret. I hate sewing so I never would have turned a collar but I do wear clothes till they’re in rags. I’m distraught when a favourite old shirt develops a hole or the seams part company, and do my very best to repair the damage…badly. Just enough to make them wearable for a little longer.

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  7. I should have known about that trick, I just replaced some sheets which started to look worn out. 😉 Whilst less worried about replacing sheets, I tend to keep my clothes for ages. I just had new lining put into an old work jacket, which was almost as expensive as buying a new one. But I find it difficult to find clothes I like, so for me it’s worth the cost and also I don’t like the throw-away culture, where clothes just last one season. Admittedly, my own mending and sewing skills are non-existent, so my local tailor helps out.

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    1. I can’t throw away either, and neither am I a brilliant seamstress. But I am brilliant at charity shops. My last bargain was a great summer dress costing £8.40, which originally retailed at … over £300! But I’d never have thought it would be that much.

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  8. I no longer turn collars, cuffs, or darn socks, but I have been known to do a nearly invisible repair on a tear in my coat and I always relegate any “indecent” shirt or pair of trousers to garden wear!

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  11. I used a lot of worn sheets as cot sheets back in the day, cut down to size. And scraps of cloth to make patchwork quilts. I don’t do any of that now, but I do wear clothes and shoes until they fall to bits.

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    1. My clothes too get worn to bits. As to patchwork quilts. Spanish daughter has taken to this. Mainly though, she has to buy the fabric she uses. I think that’s how it’s done these days.

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  12. I asked my wife about running a seam down the centre of a bed sheet. She’s heard of it but has never done it. She’s handy with a sewing machine, but would rather save her favourite vintage clothes.

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  13. My mother lived through the 1930’s in Nebraska where the winds stirred up the dust so much that the chickens went to roost in the afternoon because they thought night had come. I think back to my mother and grandparents – their thriftiness and creative ideas continue to inspire me. I look at old photos and am amazed how beautiful their hand made clothes were. My grandmother used flour sacs to make my mother dresses for Sunday Church. I still use an apron that my mother made for me years ago as a young bride. It is rather bedraggled but the memories are in every thread. Thank you for a wonderful post and follow-up discussion.

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    1. Flour sacks as dress material? Now that is taking economy to another level. Yes, we have some hand-made items from our family history, such as christening dresses (to be worn by either sex), but only these very special items. Most things got worn to extinction. Thanks for this fascinating contribution.

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  14. That’s another reminder that I have several sets of curtains that need washing and then re-hanging so that the middle edge (that has taken the most abuse while opening and closing) becomes the outside edge.

    And yes, I have great difficulty making decisions about replacing anything that still works. At least I’ve been able to trade in my old photography equipment when it needs updating, but nobody wants old computer monitors – mine work ok, but they are dull and the colours are now bad, they don’t respond to colour calibration.

    And yes, I still have clothes that are 20-30 years old that I wear on occasion . . . they fit, they are in good order, so why not?

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    1. Why not indeed? Out of date computers are a difficult one. Though I understand that at the tip they pass them on to sources that salvage anything that can still be re-purposed. Good luck with your sides-to- middling!

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  16. We used to have a device which reassembled small bits of soap into a big bar of soap and every item of clothes I wore was hand me down. These days I guess I mostly get clothes from charity shops, so the sentiment is still there!

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  17. I remember sides to middle and the feeling of the small ridge as you lay in bed! I’d totally forgotten about it though until today. I’m not much of a sewer – hemming and button-replacing are about my limits! But all my discarded clothes go to the charity shop if fit for it and make excellent dusters if not 😀

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  18. I have heard of sides to middle but not for a long time. I love your heirloom sheet. I too use clothes and shoes to destruction and prefer to buy second-hand if I can – so few people really get much wear out of their clothes. My ‘worst’ saving is Dad’s tea towel which has birds on it. It has been thin for some years, but lately is more hole than towel, yet I still use it in rotation with others. It is very absorbent, like the old cloth it is. I draw the line at hanging it out to dry though now.

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  19. Well Margaret, I suspect you and I are close in age and I’ll admit neither I, nor my mother, nor my grandmother had ever attempted this one! My mother actually sent me to sewing school as a kid, and I did quite well at it but when my little, inexpensive sewing machine died I never replaced it. I’m wicked good at hems and repairs but that’s the extent of my seamstressing. And I must admit at the gym the other day I was reading an online article while using the treadmill that mentioned a fabulous buy on Amazon of King-sized sheets for $29. UNHEARD of!! I immediately went online and bought a set and they are wonderful. I actually went back after using them and bought a second set. At that price I was happy to relegate my 25-year-old sheets to the guest room LOL!

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