So my niece may never go shopping with me again

[Ednahilda]

110. Agreed.

I just replaced my sofa which was more than 25 years old, but I did not want a sofa drenched in flame retardants (no smokers here) because they're toxic for people and linked to thyroid disease in cats. Not a single one of the major brands would disclose what chemicals they used on their furniture, so I assumed the worst.

Anyway, I saved my money and had a custom sofa made by Johnston Benchworks (NC) in my choice of fabric. It was about 30% more expensive than anything from a department store, but it was handmade in the US (probably not union, though) and the frame, made of real wood, has a lifetime guarantee. A once-in-a-quarter-century purchase can be a little of a splurge, so I just saved longer to cover the cost (no credit cards here) and I am totally thrilled with it. Beautiful and about as ethical as I could manage.

As for sewing, it's worth learning or re-learning. I learned from my grandmas when I was small to hand sew, then learned basic machine sewing in school. I saved tons of money making clothing for my kids and I still sew clothing, slipcovers and curtains all the time, although now I'm using a lovely 1871 treadle machine to sew on - I wear out the electric ones too quickly. Fabric is tough to find, but even if I spend a little more to get good fabrics in the mail or on the internet, I'm still using better materials than any of the clothes or home fabrics that are used commercially. Sometimes I can find nice fabric at Goodwill in the form of clothing: wash, pick apart the seams, press the pieces and lay your new pattern on the fabric pieces and you can make a 'new' blouse out of an old one in a more contemporary style. It helps if you can buy the old clothing in larger sizes than you wear, though.