Practical resilience for modern life
A six-year experiment in resourcefulness, resilience and everyday living, beginning 1 September 2026.
In September 1939, ordinary British households entered a period that would demand extraordinary adaptability.
They grew, cooked, preserved, repaired, reused, adapted and learned — and they relied upon one another.
Eighty-seven years later, Makes & Mends is following that timeline again.
Not as historical reenactment.
Not because life was better in the past.
But to ask a contemporary question:
What can the practices that helped ordinary people adapt to the crises of the 1940s teach us about becoming more resilient today?
Beginning on 1 September 2026, I’ll follow the British Home Front broadly in real time — researching what people were being asked to do, putting appropriate practices to the test in an ordinary modern household, and documenting what happens.
Make. Mend. Grow. Cook. Learn. Connect.
The experiment has begun.
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Full website coming soon.