2018 Fashion on the Ration challenge

thriftwizard

That’s the real point of the challenge: knowing what you want and need before you go shopping.

D'you know, I might just be able to get DD2 on board with this, for next year. She's a bit of a fashionista & always looks stunning, but we can easily spend a whole year looking for just the right pair of boots, for example - nothing else will do! She will literally go without rather than accept a substitute. And the right thing isn't always expensive, I'm delighted to report, but she's certainly not one for Primarni-type "fast" fashion... Oddly enough, she's also a fan of classic round-neck cashmere cardis, though hers have been sourced second-hand!

Yesterday I raided a local jumble sale & pottered home with a couple of nice cotton shirts to strip down for patchwork/craft fabric, at 20p apiece. The red one with a tiny white print I thought would make lovely Christmas decs of one sort or another. However, it's been snapped up instantly by DD2 to make herself a little summer dress!

PipneyJane

Greetings All from the Land of the Long White Sheep

We’ve been to Auckland, Hobbiton, Rotorua, the White Island (an active volcanic island), Rivendell and Wellington. We are currently in Wellington. (There are some photos on my blog, more to follow.) While wandering central Wellington today, I think I found the perfect boutique for Laura, Annah Stretton. The link will open to the skirt they had in the window, very 1950’s.

I’ve completely blown my coupons, mainly on yarn. I’ve mentioned before that the shop in Hobbiton was selling knitting kits for scarves and gloves made from Stansborough Grey Mithril DK, which is the yarn used to make the Elvish cloaks for Lord of the Rings. I took a couple of photos of the balls of yarn but resisted buying a kit because, frankly, if I’m buying yarn I want to buy a sweater’s worth, not odd balls. Today, we went to the Weta Studios in Wellington, where they made all the special effects for The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, the new Bladerunner film, etc. Amongst the orc masks and hobbit feet they had for sale were more of the knitting kits, together with the story of the yarn (which you can read from the link). It’s soft - I tested it on my neck - and it’s rarer than hens teeth, since there are only 1200 of these sheep in existence and all in the one flock. The perfect souvenir yarn. I promptly went on line and ordered 15 balls of the stuff in natural grey, which should give me enough to knit an Aran-style sweater.

Also purchased today were a pair of Kathmandu-brand hiking sandals. I currently have three pairs of sandals: a smart pair from Timberland for work and parties, a red pair of sling-backs which I wear to work sometimes (the stitching has gone on one of the sling-backs, it’s currently superglued together), and a pair of Teva walking sandals, which have been worn to death and which I’m expecting to die sometime in 2019. All three pairs were purchased in 2012. The new sandals were on special, at 30% off. My husband found them while looking for a waterproof jacket. (It rains a lot in New Zealand.)

And, finally, I have my original souvenir yarn purchase to declare. We did a little souvenir/gift shopping in Rotorua, last week. While my DH was busy checking out tee-shirts, I asked the girl at the counter if there were any yarn shops in town. She said, “Only Spotlight” and gave me directions. Without holding out much hope - for my souvenir, I wanted New Zealand grown yarn - I wandered down to take a look. (Spotlight is what you’d get if Hobbycraft mated with a bedlinen and soft furnishing store.). Well, I got lucky. Spotlight stock a local brand of 4-ply sock yarn, Naturally Waikiwi. I bought three 50g balls of their self-patterning “prints”.

So that’s 20 coupons spent today and 3 coupons spent on Friday. I had 6 coupons remaining, which means that I’m now 17 coupons over the 66 coupon limit. (“Hello, Mr Spiv. Let me buy you another pint...”).

I swear the yarn will get knitted. The sandals will be worn when the Teva ones wear out.

- Pip. (Oh, and I’ve completely spent my yarn budget.)

thriftwizard

Spotlight stock a local brand of 4-ply sock yarn, Naturally Waikiwi. I bought three 50g balls of their self-patterning “prints”.

Oooh, just look at those colourways! Probably a good job I'm on the other side of the planet, although Garnstudio's Fabel is similar. Without the possum, though!

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh that all sounds lovely! By the way Pip, I recall you bought some hats a few weeks ago (it was you, wasn't it?). Looking at the small print above, surely hats are coupon-free? I think they were felt to be a morale booster and not very heavy on resources.

I've spent my last two coupons on 2m of jersey velour. Unusually for me, I really feel that I want a new Christmas frock. I'm hoping it will sew up quickly on the over locker - no zips or fastening.

RicardaRacoon

Evening everyone


Oh Pip, no wonder you bought yarn, it looks lovely! By the way, in case you want to watch a Kiwi knitting podcast while knitting the yarn up; check out Truly Myrthle, she is lovely!


I've been to Bath for a few days with my sister and of course we had to go to the yarn shop and I bought two balls of yarn for my Mum, but that does not come from my coupon budget. My Mums CHristmas / birthday present is a ball of sock yarn each month so I'm always picking up yarn when I go somewhere. Besides that, all I did in the yarn shop was hug yarn and cuddle Toby the shop dog.



After buying a pair of winter shoes I knew I had no points left, but was still having a look around to see if some of the usual spivs sell something interessting, but there was nothing worth going to the black market for....



It is our office christmas party on Friday and some of my coworkers have mentioned buying a new dress for it... It all got slightly out of hands since some of the men started to dress up a tad too much and the women followed... So there is no way I'm going to buy a dress just for a office party, since I will spend CHristmas and New Years Eve with my family and neither of us dresses up too much... To my delight I now have a training all day on Friday and will go straight to the party from there - if I'd worked that day I'd had time to go home and change - so that is a good excuse to not dress up too much.



I really like the concept with using the points as a small guideline but not be too strict in case it doesn't fully work out in the end. We've all had this odd year where about every pair of shoes is falling appart, winter coat has reached the end of its life span and about every pair of jeans suddenly sports nice holes....

We really don't have a concept of how much clothes is too much, so I think a small set of rules just helps so much and when you know you can't just go out and buy unlimited other garnment you naturally start thinking about it to make sure it is the thing you want.


have a lovely evening everyone!
Off to the sofa with a book and a blanket, it is quite nippy in here but I refuse to heat more...

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane wrote: »

While wandering central Wellington today, I think I found the perfect boutique for Laura, Annah Stretton. The link will open to the skirt they had in the window, very 1950’s.

Oooh, very lovely! And nice it's in Wellington - very happy memories of spending a few weeks there in 1987 just as I left school...

I’ve completely blown my coupons, mainly on yarn.

Not necessarily - you could buy stuff in other countries without coupons, couldn't you? You might need to pay import duties, but so far as I recollect that was the whole reason why nylon stockings were a big smuggling thing... because you could go abroad and buy them easily, then bring them back and sell them for a huge profit.

(Oh, and I’ve completely spent my yarn budget.)

Ah, now that might be a bigger problem

Thankyou for these lovely postcards - I've really enjoyed joining you in your travels!

Laura_Elsewhere

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oooh, just look at those colourways! Probably a good job I'm on the other side of the planet, although Garnstudio's Fabel is similar. Without the possum, though!

Last year a friend decided to concentrate on her lace-knitting so sent me a message saying, "package on its way to you - mystified, I opened the strangely squishy parcel to find she'd simply packed up all her sock yarn and DPNs and sent me them!! I've now got a couple of pairs of ankle-socks in gorgeous colourways in Fabel, really nice stuff.

Laura_Elsewhere

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

I've spent my last two coupons on 2m of jersey velour. Unusually for me, I really feel that I want a new Christmas frock. I'm hoping it will sew up quickly on the over locker - no zips or fastening.

Well, it sews nicely even on my 1902 straight-stitch Singer (as long as I don't try to sew a stretchy seam!)...

We went to a gig last night, away over in Leicester (The Human League, with Midge Ure beforehand - utterly BRILLIANT, both!), and I suddenly felt very wistful about not having a pretty Christmassy sort of going-out top to wear... so I grabbed that five yards of red crushed-velvet, and cut a rectangle, sewed the short ends to make a me-sized tube to hip-length, cut two arm-hole curves out of the top edge, used two lengths of six-inch wide leftovers and gathered the ends into 3", then hand-stitched the gathered bits to the front and back to make those straps that stay on your shoulder with the gathered fullness falling off over your shoulder too. It took 45 minutes to do, inc designing it mentally, cutting out, the one seam, and the four gather-and-stitch strap bits.

It felt very festive and lovely!

Laura_Elsewhere

Another couponless garment is on its way...

I bought a fine-wool jumper a few years ago on eBay - it turned out a much more violent bubblegum/Barbie pink than expected, and shrank after cold washing, so I barely wore it... it's been hanging about waiting to become moth-food ever since, which is no good!

So I've cut the sleeves and neckline off, and am now using cheerfully-clashing bright-deep-orange 4-ply wool and pillarbox-red laceweight 2-ply wool to crochet a narrow lace edging to make a cosy wool vest for cold weather

First pic accurate for jumper colour; second pic accurate for orange and red but not for jumper!

No idea if images will work again...

PipneyJane

Laura, I am in awe of your creativity.

Has there been an issue posting pictures? I haven’t tried recently.

We’re leaving Auckland today and heading home for Blighty. I am sitting at the airport gate, destressing over a cappuccino. In some respects, the logistics of this trip has completely done me in. It started when I had to cancel and rebook my flight because auto-complete on my laptop screwed up my name, which meant that
we’v Had to beg to sit together (successfully) on all our flights. To top it off, today, I left my coat in the hire car - Rental NZ fetched it for me - and left my liquids in my handbag going through security (they didn’t cause much fuss - were more interested in my tiny Swiss-Army knife widget).

About to board. Am I in a tizzy? Yes.

- Pip