Dot

Tried three unstructured jackets on Saturday and two of them sat properly straight off the rack. I'd been shopping entirely in the structured section without realising it was a category.

Hadn't considered this because I assumed everything old would be enormous. Apparently not in the shoulder.

Adding it off the heat is the tip that changed rebatching for me too. Still would not do it for a cosmetic problem, but it is fair to say the reputation comes from dry rebatches.

Moved a five-year spreadsheet over. What I got was the 40 minutes back and household sharing, so my partner could look at it without me exporting anything. What I lost was the ability to do a weird one-off calculation in three seconds, which I badly underestimated. Net positive, but I still keep a spreadsheet for anything unusual.

Rebatching is not melting. Cold process does not go back to a pourable liquid, it goes to something like hot mashed potato, and it sets with that texture. You can absolutely do it in the slow cooker with a splash of liquid, but you will trade a gel ring for a rustic lumpy bar and most of your fragrance will have cooked off.

That is exactly it. Rebatch is for salvaging soap that is unusable, not for improving soap that is merely unattractive.

I did use tap water and my stick blender is ancient. That is two of the three.

Old crayons is exactly the smell. So the spotted third are effectively on a countdown.

The hanger point is underrated. Wire hangers put a permanent dent in the shoulder line of a wool coat within a season and it never comes out.

I keep a note in my phone of what I paid and when I bought things, mostly because I was curious about exactly this. Coats have been my best category by a distance. My daily winter coat is in its ninth season and still looks respectable, and the one before it went eleven years before the lining went and I had that replaced rather than replacing the coat.

Boots are the second best if you buy something resoleable and actually get it resoled. Mine have had two resoles and the uppers are better looking now than when they were new. Jeans are the worst by a mile, four seasons at most before the thigh goes, regardless of what I paid. Knitwear varies enormously and depends far more on fibre and knit density than on price.

Slight disagreement about where the money is. Everyone wants to do restoration and nobody wants to do the boring repeatable work, which is exactly why the boring work pays: blank journals in a house style, guest books, presentation folders, thesis and dissertation binding around exam season, and simple boxes. Those have known times and known materials, so you can quote instantly and you're not gambling. I subsidise the interesting repairs with a run of guest books every autumn and I'm much happier than when I was chasing restoration jobs.

Sorted this in January and the bit that took longest was embarrassing: my checkout didn't collect a company name or a VAT number at all, so I had no way to tell a business from a person, which is the distinction the entire thing hangs on.

Added an optional 'buying as a business' toggle with company name and VAT number fields. Roughly one in six of my sales tick it. I'd assumed almost none, and had been treating a chunk of business sales as consumer sales without knowing.

Check the sole thickness and the welt stitching in the photos before bidding. "Barely worn" and a sole worn through at the ball happen in the same listing more often than you'd think.

Took me two years and a therapist to get to that sentence. Leaving somewhere toxic messes with your baseline for a long time.

Unfused collars are usually described as "soft collar" or "unlined" in the product details, and they cost more. They also look slightly rumpled in a way people either love or hate.