Turn The Sheets?

[barry1010]

Just reminiscing and remember sleeping on sheets with a seam up the middle because my mother would turn them when they were wearing thin in the middle. This meant cutting them in half lengthways and sewing the original edges together, hemming the new edges.

Now, it is years since we bought new sheets and they are laundered every week. They are nowhere near thinning in the middle. I can't believe they are better quality or better made and can only conclude that today's washing machines are kinder to the laundry than the dolly and tub I remember my mother using, later a twin tub. I do wash them at 75 or 90 degrees.

Do your sheets thin in the middle? Would you turn them to save money if they did?

[AuntPollyGrey]

People of all classes were less wasteful back in the day, hating to throw things out. My French Grannie lived in the 16th in Paris had two maids and Pappie worked for the government. She got the maids to make pillowcases out of the best bits of the worn sheets. They lived through the Occupation so I suppose you never forget that.

[Bobbisox1]

Mr B still uses cottons hankies ....
I use to boil my Zorba nappies in a zinc bucket on top of the cooker with Nappisan before getting a Hoovermatic twin tub

[Apc2604]

We lived in flats. A laundry van came round once a week to collect sheets and towels and they came back pressed and stiffed. I hated getting into bed on the first night of clean sheets because the sheets were stiff! You had a laundy number which was printed on your sheets.

[Apc2604]

APG. My husband's early childhood was spent in a displaced persons' camp after the war. Now they really did have to make do and mend.

[barry1010]

Good point about the mangle being hard on the laundry.

[jourdain2]

The sheets don't really thin these days, but otherwise, yes I would 'turn to middle' them. I grew up with make do and mend and home-made clothes. I learned to make my own clothes if I wanted anything a bit different in the 60s. I made my own wedding-dress. I was lucky in living near to Saltaire and lots of fabric shops.

After marriage I continued to make own clothes (had to) and made almost everything my children wore apart from socks and undies. I even ended-up making my husband's trousers and sports jackets. It was just one of those things. We'd no money - so you did it yourself. Yes I'd turn sheets to save money and can see that these old skills may need to be re-tuned and used in the not-too-far-distant future.