How to Mend and Repair Clothing - Continued

You can make your terrycloth bath towels last a lot longer by cutting down on the amount of time they spend in the washer and dryer.  Instead of laundering them after every use, try once a week.

If your cloth covering on a down quilt or comforter has gotten old and shabby, there is no reason to throw out the down.  Put a new bag in your vacuum cleaner; open a seam on the comforter and vacuum out the down.  It will probably take more than one vacuum bag to gather all the down.  Save the down from the comforter and use it for a new one.  When you fill a comforter with down, be careful not to over stuff it.  When compressed too densely, it will lose rather than gain insulating ability since it is the trapped air and not the tiny feathers that keep you warm. 

If you wait too long to have the heels replaced on your shoes, the altered angle at which your foot strikes the ground will permanently distort the back of the shoe.  Have the heels replaced as soon as their edges become sloped and rounded.  If you like leather heels on your shoes, make them last longer by installing heels that have a rubber bottom or a rubber insert along the outer rear edge of the heel. If you have these rubber components replaced before wear hits the leather part of the heel, your heels will last longer.

To pick up beads, use our vacuum cleaner.  You will need some old panty hose.  First, remove the head from the end of your vacuum cleaner hose.  Cut one leg off the panty hose and slope the stocking over the vacuum’s hose.  Now turn on the vacuum cleaner.  The beads will be sucked toward the vacuum hose, but the panty hose will prevent them from being sucked into the vacuum cleaner.  Gather the beads and put them into a container.