2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

I can't keep up with myself... halfway through a concert last night, I suddenly remembered I have boxes of fabric and maybe I should check in there before using my chap's coupons to buy more... from memory I have enough spruce-green crushed velvet to make a lovely long full skirt for everyday (I have a possibly odd version of what is suitable for everyday wear, with good boots and a jumper, to scramble through hedgerows, along woodland paths and over open heathland ), as well as enough cherry-red crushed velvet to make a dance-frock suitable for wearing to gigs...!

So that would be no coupons at all! I amaze myself at times with my idiocy...

The Joy of Stash. Don’t worry, you are not alone. The problem with stashing is that there’s also the problem of figuring out what to do with it. Friday, when I had the house to myself for a few hours, I went through the Sock Yarn Box in order to figure out what I’d bring with me to knit on this trip. (Not that big. Maybe 6 inches deep x 12 x 12. I once held our inkjet printer). There is at least a year’s knitting in that box, including 4x50g balls of Regia 3-Faedig, 3-ply sock yarn in black. At 260m a ball, that’s 1040m of light-weight black yarn, which would make a 1930’s or 1940’s style sweater. Alternatively, it could become socks - when I bought this yarn, I also purchased 4 skeins in dark grey and am now on sock 1 of pair 4, with a third of this ball plus one full ball left.

Somewhere, I heard the phrase: “collecting craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies”. It’s true.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Oh, I have the yarn for half a dozen 4-ply 1940s Fair Isle cardigans!

My fabric collection, though... there are fabric shops with less... for years I bought fabric but never used it because I never felt I deserved to waste it on me... now I'm using some of it, but there is so much! And of course I bought fairly randomly, so some is stuff I'm never going to use, really... not my colour, not my style, etc...

Eventually, I'll eBay some of it - I have this huge and increasing collection of vintage-y stuff to eBay, and plan next year to get going on it, with a kind of tongue-in-cheek vintage shabby-chic emphasis, from Famous Five books to lavender sachets hand-stitched using my late Gran's old embroidered handkerchieves!

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh Laura, that all sounds so familiar! 'I love this fabric, although I don't know what I'm gong to make with it', 'Ooh, it's so cheap and there's yards of it' and 'It's pure wool/cotton/silk' or 'it's such a gorgeous colour' ...

i wonder if you could "swap" coupons; so if you sell some fabric on eBay, you would take that person's coupons and then have them to spend?

I think I'm going to end the year with two coupons in hand. I was going to use it to buy 2 m of dress fabric, but I couldn't decide what I liked. My niece has just had a clear out, (I think she had been purchasing on the same lines as above!), and I've got a good 2 m of navy fabric. Not exactly what I would've chosen, but it will be good for making a trial dress in the pattern I want to try. Luckily the fabric for the Christmas wrapping bags that I'm planning to make is something I already had in hand.

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Oh, I have the yarn for half a dozen 4-ply 1940s Fair Isle cardigans!

So do I, but not in the sock yarn stash. The main yarn stash is just as big as your fabric stash. I could knit until 2025 without purchasing any yarn and still have some left.

My fabric stash is considerably smaller, primarily because I haven’t sewn anything for 20 years so haven’t stashed. (I didn’t have anywhere to set up my sewing machine for several years.) However, I think there is a dress and a suit in there which have been cut out but never stitched. There is no way on earth that they would fit me now.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane wrote: »

I didn’t have anywhere to set up my sewing machine for several years.

There are many reasons why I think my chap is the nicest chap in the world, and one of them I think I've mentioned before - when we moved me in here to live with him four years ago, I assumed I'd leave my big treadle Singer at my parents' large house and borrow one of the smaller family table-top ones, but my lovely chap said, "which one's yours? That treadle? Well, bring that one, then" and then when we got here and he'd carried the machine and then the wooden top and drawers and then the cast-iron legs and treadle up two flights of stairs separately and put them all back together again, he said, "isn't light really important for swing? Would in front of the window be a good place?" and so I've had the most gorgeous view out over miles of treetops and on a clear day to the Welsh hills 30-odd miles away, as I sew...!

I think it sounds like we all have a tendency to gather supplies... hmm, I wonder if maybe that's part of the same habitual behaviour as buying more clothes than we really need to, or want to, buy? Maybe over time, as fabric and yarn are included in this ration challenge, I can get much better at not stockpiling textiles???

thriftwizard

May I join in, somewhat belatedly? I've been reading along, and at several points in the year have worked out how many coupons I've used etc. - not many, to be fair, until recently; it was just a few on underwear, as I buy nearly everything secondhand or make it! But I have had to buy a couple of new pairs of leggings recently.

I had totally forgotten about the straight-stitch-only aspect of a treadle. Hmmmm..... I wonder when zigzag came in? Maybe when the revolution comes, we can make our way in the world manufacturing treadle sewing machines with zigzag.

I'm a happy treadler as well, doing most of my straight-stitch work on a 1909 Jones Medium treadle which I adore. But I have also run a 1960s Jones zig-zag & embroidery machine on an old Singer treadle that had lost its "head", very successfully. It worked better than it ever had with its growly old external motor. As long as the machine's the same size as the hole in the treadle top (or can be given a "plate" to fit it) and the balance wheel lines up with the treadle holes & has a groove to take the belt, it'll work. That one has now gone off to a professional leatherworker whose studio has no power supply (space issues at this end) & I have a (secondhand) computerised machine instead, which is lovely, but when it dies, it dies.

I may just have spent a whole lot of coupons on yarn to crochet a sweater for DD2 whilst recuperating from a recent operation; I dread to think how many! Will refer to the list & report back.

ETA: 26 coupons on yarn! But worth every one. What should leggings count as - undergarments, other? Or "combinations"?

Laura_Elsewhere

Welcome!

You obviously fit in, 26 coupons on yarn!

but if you're starting now, then in theory you should be starting with six weeks of coupons, not twelve months... *sharp intake of breath* I reckon you're already in with the black marketeers, yikes!

I love the idea of leggings being combinations! But stockings are 2 coupons a pair and I think leggings should be more than 2 - but 4 for combs seems a bit steep - maybe 3 coupons a pair of leggings, between stockings and combs?

thriftwizard

So, I'd have 7 coupons, for 6 weeks - but over the course of the year to date, I'd have spent 42! 26 on the yarn (to be fair it's fabulous stuff & the finished jumper looks amazing on her, if I say it myself) and I've bought one 5-pack of M&S knicks (10 coupons? at 2 prs for 4 coupons?) and two pairs of leggings at 6 coupons. As the yarn & leggings were bought last month, and the knicks back in March, perhaps I'm not doing too badly?!

I wouldn't normally buy yarn as I'm perfectly capable of spinning it myself, but wasn't sure how comfortable sitting down post-op would be. And I have to say I'd struggle to dye it as beautifully as Garnstudio do...

Black marketeers? Just so happens, I'm a market trader myself, though what I normally sell is vintage fabric, old sewing machines etc... but you never know what might turn up. Fancy a pound of sausages...?

PipneyJane

thriftwizard wrote: »

So, I'd have 7 coupons, for 6 weeks - but over the course of the year to date, I'd have spent 42! 26 on the yarn (to be fair it's fabulous stuff & the finished jumper looks amazing on her, if I say it myself) and I've bought one 5-pack of M&S knicks (10 coupons? at 2 prs for 4 coupons?) and two pairs of leggings at 6 coupons. As the yarn & leggings were bought last month, and the knicks back in March, perhaps I'm not doing too badly?!

I wouldn't normally buy yarn as I'm perfectly capable of spinning it myself, but wasn't sure how comfortable sitting down post-op would be. And I have to say I'd struggle to dye it as beautifully as Garnstudio do...

Black marketeers? Just so happens, I'm a market trader myself, though what I normally sell is vintage fabric, old sewing machines etc... but you never know what might turn up. Fancy a pound of sausages...?

He He!

Given the above, if you say you’ve spent 42 coupons this year, then that’s your spend on the challenge to date. That’ll give you 24 to roll into 2019 or to spend between now and the New Year.

In my tally, I’ve counted leggings at two coupons per pair. I’m treating them as very heavy, thermal tights.

Don’t apologise for spending your coupons on good yarn. (I’ve done the same, this year.) Garnstudio yarn is lovely. I have a soft spot for their Alpaca 4-ply.

I have another spend to declare. We went up the Skytower in Auckland today and, in their shop at the bottom, I found a lovely woollen scarf. The background is grey, with small salmon pink Kiwis scattered over it. It will go with several of my suits, so I think that’s 2 coupons well spent.

I’m now down to 6 coupons. If you are keeping track of my posts above, then obviously I can’t add. I’ve just updated the sidebar in my blog, where I track every item that I’ve purchased and I’ve definitely spent 60 coupons.

- Pip.

Laura_Elsewhere

Head:wall argh...

Having had an "I'm too fat/old/etc to wear anything that nice" wobble, my lovely chap convinced me to go ahead and make a serious party-frock for January-ish with fabric I was given by a kindly friend five years ago now - only it needs some other fabric to go with it, so um, er, well.

Only does organza count as fabric? I mean, there's hardly anything of it, right? (looks hopeful)

I have NO self-control when it comes to sparkly organza for a party frock!!!

And he's right. I'm statuesque and not fat, and if I can't make myself the ultimate party frock as I approach fifty when on earth could I make it?!

So... in the next six weeks or so, I hope to make a velvet dancing frock, and a velvet everyday skirt, and an organza and tulle extravaganza!



And oh jings, how I need to keep on top of 2019's coupons...!!!!!