Make Do and Mend is on the way back

Monday, 26 January 2009

The generation that grew up in the war, now septuagenarians and beyond, were used to saving and re-using. Coming through the war years themselves and the ration years of the fifties, they knew how to make things last.

The most recent generation became the “throw-away” generation in the nineties. If something was broken we all simply threw it away and bought a brand new replacement.

Well, with the recession having taken a firm grip in the UK, and the world in economic gloom, we might be about to make a complete cycle to return to the “good old days”.

The older generation could – literally – teach the younger generation how to “make do and mend”.

The time has come to mend and continue using those broken items. If something has a scratch on it, so what? Save money by carrying on with it.

People born in the thirties and before can teach the young a thing or two about making the best use of what we’ve got. The 1940s phrase was “make do and mend” and the generation of the 21st Century should be able to see the economic – and the environmental – benefits of such a strategy.

There is an exhibition called Make Do and Mend at the Whitstable Museum and Art Gallery until 21 February (see Canterbury-museums.co.uk).

Exhibition curator Manda Gifford said: “With cheap goods in the past 20 years we’ve lost the skills that have become important again.” When reading wartime leaflets she found classes teaching darning and mending. “There’s no shame in not knowing how to mend a saucepan handle or darn a sock – we just need people to teach us again.”

In the “olden days” people used to bring their own brown paper to shops to wraps their purchases, and they used to put out unwanted paper and metal for salvage collectors; now, it’s recycling organised by the local council.

Darning and mending could be about to make a comeback as people look for ways to save money and make the best of what they’ve got.

The current generation may have an understanding of the benefits of recycling - not least because of the pressure on local government to comply – but the elderly could still teach them a thing or two about mending and re-using. The economy will dictate that it will happen again.

Look at transitiontowns.org to find Make Do and Mend workshops.

  What's this?