The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in clothing, handmade, Uncategorized on Feb 20th, 2012
Making things with yarn is truly an Old School skill, and whether you favor knitting, crocheting, or some other way of playing with yarn, you may find yourself in need of a pom pom. (some call it a pom PON) A hat with a jaunty poof on top makes the Damsel smile. You can buy [...]
Posted in clothing on Feb 22nd, 2011
The Damsel has lectured previously on making your own dryer sheets–a similar topic, perhaps, but not PRECISELY the same thing. What if you want to POUR liquid fabric softener into your washing machine compartment instead of using a dryer sheet? Sometimes people have these urges. You can make your own liquid fabric softener. There are [...]
Don’t be scared. The Damsel isn’t going to force you to make soap out of lard and ashes like in the olden days. Come on, it won’t be so bad. The Damsel got this recipe from Christy Monson, a writing friend. (Contact info below) The Damsel would like to say that Christy is a tidy [...]
Posted in clothing on Jan 8th, 2011
The Damsel has 7 sprogs; thus it goes without saying she’s been around the laundry block. This simple, cheap pre-soak WORKS, especially on food stains. It came into the grateful hands of the Damsel via The Tightwad Gazette, which was a fantastic newsletter published back in the 90′s. Mix one cup powdered dishwashing detergent (like [...]
Posted in clothing, thrifty, Uncategorized on Aug 28th, 2010
First, let’s talk about this. What do you use Febreeze for? Be honest. You use Febreeze to make stinky fabric things smell better. Febreeze works by binding the stink molecules to itself, rendering them unsmellable. It also adds a scent of its own. It doesn’t remove the stink–it’s simply bound up and covered over. Still, [...]
Posted in clothing, environment on Jul 1st, 2010
By request, the Damsel takes on one of those perplexing problems of modern life. Static Cling. **shudder Grandma didn’t really have a problem with static cling since she hung her clothes out to dry in the fresh sunshine. The Damsel recommends you try this if you have any possible way of doing so. There are [...]
In the olden days, folks used all sorts of things to dye fabric . . . plants . . . minerals . . . and even crushed insects, although for bug crushing instructions you’ll have to look elsewhere. The Old School will not be covering that. For eggshell and tan colors, using tea is simple [...]
Posted in clothing on Aug 3rd, 2009
How to iron a shirt: buy permanent press, and take it out of the dryer while it’s still hot. There. But if you have an old school 100% cotton shirt, here’s the way to iron it. The Damsel uses the “Good Enough” method. It’s traditional to use this order: First heat the iron nice and [...]
Here are two ways for patching jeans when the objective is “cute” rather than “wow, you can hardly tell.” The first is a type of applique, which is a fancy French word for “sewing a piece of material on top of another.” You can put a patch on just for decoration, or to actually cover [...]
Posted in clothing on Jul 9th, 2009
It’s sad but true that mending has become a lost art. A little hole that was no big deal for Grandma, can now spell death for a favorite garment. The Damsel understands. She used to keep a basket of things that needed mending, which she took periodically to Grandma. But now the Damsel must do [...]
