I got mine from HD (I think Lowe's sells it too). They sell it on a roll - it's 6ft wide and then you can buy it as long as you need. I like it, it's tough stuff. You can cut it without it coming all apart on ya. It comes in green, tan, black, and a kind of blue/silver. I got the blue/silver stuff thinking it would match the GH better, and my shade cloth is elevated above the peek of the roof by 1 1/2 foot so I didn't want it standing out any more than it already would. I've never been able to find out what the shade % really is (heard somewhere it was 70%) but at high noon I have 4500-5000fc coming thru the roof at 8 foot off the floor. Without the shade cloth it's 8000-10,000 and HOT as all Howdy!!!! That shade cloth really helps with the heat. Maybe you could look on HD's web site and see if you think the price is in line with what you wanted to spend. HD also has all kinds of do-dads to attach it with too. No, I don't work for HD....lol................... Pat in Florida

Hello, I found this old thread (almost a pun in this case) quite interesting. I have more clothing than I need, but that is mainly because I keep almost all of my old clothes in perpetuity. I have 'nice clothes' I almost never wear, from when I had a corporate job, but every now and then I wear them. Yesterday I wore something nice to attend a friend's baby's baptism. If clothes don't fit now, well, I am optimistic that they will fit again sometime. For a long time I kept some old pants I had loved (purple jeans and blue jeans, each colorful, stretchy and not denim) that I decided I would really get rid of since they hadn't fit me in years. Then I lived in Ecuador for a year (out of 2 suitcases of clothes) and lost weight and they fit me again (briefly.) So now I think I am justified in keeping them a few more years just in case. :-) Freecycle helps me, as when I see a person near my size really needs clothes I try to find them a bag of mine that I don't need. But I also get free clothing on freecycle a lot. I have gotten clothing from one sister a lot, I give her some sometimes (as we reverse who is gaining or losing weight) but she complains because what she gives me is almost always nicer than what I give her. Then there is a third sister that we both give clothes to, she never gives any away. Once her washer broke and she said she could go 3 months without having to wash any clothes except underwear! I think the reason that homesteaders and organic gardeners and home canners and bakers mostly don't make clothing is just that the clothing most of us could make ourselves wouldn't be very good/comfy. Whereas the organic vegies and the homemade bread and jam way exceed the quality of ordinary grocery store items. Clothing from stores is just way better than what I could make myself, I can hardly patch my jeans. One thing Marie said I must take exception to: "The idea was that someone was trying to draw attention to themselves by wearing really worn out garments. It was a way to control family members, too, in some cases. The threadbare person would try to get sympathy for him or herself." I and my hubby both tend to wear really worn out things, where the material is thin or has holes, whatever. We get fond of certain things and wear them over and over until they are totally shot. I don't stop wearing favorite shirts until they are so worn out they rip down the back and are unrepairable. It is always cotton comfy shirts in a color or pattern I liked a lot, and I just won't stop wearing them until I absolutely have to. I used to date a guy who had holes in his clothes, really ratty underwear, and so on. He also had a weird short haircut. I initially mistook him for a punk (back in the mid-80s.) Turned out he was just excessively thrifty and paid no attention to his appearance. So although I imagine some people could wear worn out clothing to make some sort of statement, some of us are really just that thrifty or lazy or attached to a particular garment. As for shoes, I have short wide feet with high arches. I always had to wear shoes longer than my feet to get them to fit comfortably in the toe area. In college I wore a friend's shoes and was amazed how nice it was to have shoes already busted out a little. I soon got used shoes from a lot of people, in particular a friend who was a serious runner. She ran about 10 miles a day, so after a few months would need good new running shoes. But they were great for walking around for YEARS more. And fit better and were more comfy since already broken in. So I am lucky that old shoes are better for me than new. My other solution these days is to buy boys shoes, somehow boys get to have wider feet than women. I get almost all garments free and used, so that is about as sustainable as one can get. Marcia

Thanks for all your hard work Karen! Can't wait to read it in its entirety. Jodi-

I recently "let go" of a number of work clothes--fine wool skirts, pants, jackets. I'm still doing nearly the same work, and wearing professional wardrobe, but these either no longer fit or don't look quite right. I also almost exclusively wear pants and jackets now rather than skirts, and I previously had had a lot of narrow skirts that fit pretty closely and with not much forgiveness in the hips and waistbands! I had not worn them in maybe 5 years and had had many of them out of my closet for a year or more but could not "let go." It helped me to try on a bunch of things in my closet and to see that I had other clothes that looked better now and that I had a slightly new "look" that wasn't achieved by the old clothes. So, that actually styles HAD changed a bit and that I would buy new things rather than make those work. And there is the 5 extra pounds--that I might lose, or might not. But I really can't completely explain why I could collect this huge pile this month and could not do the same thing the previous year. Somehow I was able to see that I just was not going to wear them. And, that somehow I would be able to find other things (this idea is re: the hidden hoarding, being afraid I would not find other clothes. That's not so far off really, because "they" did quit making some fabrics and styles that I like--or at least, not readily available in local dept. stores.) I think also these represented a lot of my early professional years and investment in my work wardrobe, and there is some nostalgia for that young(er) working woman. I have had the same experience with some other items this year--things I could not have imagined giving away last year, now I look and say, why on earth do I still have this? So to me, it is encouraging not to be too hard on myself when clearing out things--that, if I seem to be struggling with something, I can either take a little time to try to unravel why I'm struggling--that does sometimes help-- or I can just put it aside, but that when the time is right, I will be able to let it go and it will feel right. This seems to be true for a number of things when you have a family--one year you couldn't imagine giving away some games, or puzzles, or sporting goods, and the next year, kids are different, now you realize nobody's actually used it in longer than you thought, and boom--give it to someone who will use it.