Do you ‘make do and mend’? I have been attempting it quite a lot this week and I think it’s going pretty well so far.

I need to point out in case you haven’t realised yet, that I’m not an expert when it comes to fixing (or anything for that matter). I think that is pretty obvious but in an attempt to be 100% transparent I thought I’d point it out anyway.

Having said that, I got out my sewing machine this week! The 2-seater sofa Dearest Son uses needed the zips replaced on the cushions. I ordered them a couple of weeks ago then had to order the actual metal taggy things to put on the zips as I hadn’t realised they didn’t come with them. Told you I didn’t know much about this sort of stuff. After much pushing, trimming and swearing I got the taggy things onto said zips (after watching a YouTube video on the subject too). I don’t have anyone to ask about such things.

I’ve never put a zip on something so big. I’ve hand sewn zips onto old bags of mine so it was ok that they were a bit wonky but this was a little different. I’m not going to claim they are on correctly, but they are on and the sofa is now more comfortable with all the cushion parts being firmly held in place where they should be.

I was on a roll.

I had picked up 2 wooden chairs from the allotment which had been put in the ‘free stuff’ section. They had seen better days. So I stripped the cushion part off one of them and I’ve sanded them down. The varnish was to go on today but it rained. I’m also going to replace the cushion and the cover – I’m getting quite adventurous.

Dearest Son is even getting in on the act. He has been working hard restoring the the nest of tables I’ve had for years. He was working on the largest one this week and has sanded and glued and done all sorts of preparing things so it can also be varnished. (He has another 2 tables to do).

I plan on using one of Hubby’s old football shirts for a cushion cover. This is the experimental one because I have an old t-shirt of our son’s which I really want to turn into a cushion but I need a practice run first!

I know there are many much more talented people on the blog-o-sphere when it comes to this sort of thing so I’d love to know if any of you have been mending, fixing and so on lately (and any tips you’d like to give a complete novice)?