2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

Well, I think you miscalculated anyway - you included all the yarn you bought in NZ didn't you? But surely bringing things in from overseas might incur purchase-taxes or import-duty you had to pay at the port, but you wouldn't have needed coupons for them. So you should knock all those bits off.

True.

vintagegal wrote: »

Pipneyjane, the jeans sound like a good buy as you will wear them a lot, and that’s the basis for this challenge. I’d say you could have the suit coupons back too!
Glad you’re enjoying the book Diminua, I bet people did find ways to stretch the coupons. I have small feet so would definitely have tried to get kids shoes!
Time for the sewing bee!!

Also true.

Laura and Vintagegal, thank you. I will wipe the 2019 slate clean and start again, which means I’ve spent 18 coupons out of 66.

diminua wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome PipneyJane. I do have 2 more coupons to declare - on gloves. They were the right size (I take a 3, so large children's gloves) and grey and much warmer and more versatile than my old pink ones, and half price at £6. So I had to, really.

Reading the Julie Summers Fashion on the Ration book (thanks are due to vintagegal, who recommended it a few pages back I think) - it seems women were wearing boys shoes to use fewer coupons/because they were practical. I wonder if someone my size (well, my height but slimmer) could have got away with wearing a child's mac or jacket, with a whole 3 coupons saved. Or would the shopkeeper have to say 'If it's for you madam, then I'm afraid...'

59 coupons left

My tiny, 4’8” aunt did exactly that, buying children’s clothing for herself throughout the war. (There’s a post-war story of her shopping for maternity clothes with my mum and being informed “We don’t serve children here!”. Auntie Molly was 6 months pregnant at the time.)

Can I second your thanks to Vintagegal for the book recommendation? I bought the Fashion on the Ration book too and am currently in the middle of Chapter 8 (page 166 of the Kindle edition). It’s fascinating. There are things I knew (such as the ration dropping to 48 coupons by 1944) and things I didn’t (the 66 coupons dropped to 60 within a few months of the scheme being launched).

- Pip

PollyWollyDoodle

Yikes - 48 coupons! :eek: I struggled on 66 last year - although I suppose if you'd spent your full allowance each year by then, you'd have been well supplied taking into account the comments above about fewer clothes and better quality.

Pip, I'm sure in wartime if things became available you bought whatever you could because you didn't know if it would be available again, so the jeans are in line with that.

Interesting point about boy's shoes - in photos of those years, you often see women wearing what would these days be considered quite clumpy and unflattering shoes with low heels and lace-up fronts (they look blissfully comfortable to me!).

Still only bought one pair of PJ bottoms so far.

Laura_Elsewhere

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Yikes - 48 coupons! :eek: I struggled on 66 last year - although I suppose if you'd spent your full allowance each year by then, you'd have been well supplied taking into account the comments above about fewer clothes and better quality.

I'm planning to try and keep a count of my chap's coupons this year because I suspect he may come in well under 66, and he has a range of clothes, some seasonal, some smarter or more casual, yet he seems not to "need" to buy new ones often.
After my mini-rant the other day in here I am now seriously considering the difference between modern men's and women's clothing, not just the iniquitous outrage of Stupid Pockets For Women, but also the quality of fabric and construction...

Interesting point about boy's shoes - in photos of those years, you often see women wearing what would these days be considered quite clumpy and unflattering shoes with low heels and lace-up fronts (they look blissfully comfortable to me!).

Roughly what I wear a lot of the time! I have a pair of men's lace-up brogues from, I think, the 1960s, handmade ones, Church's, and they are wonderfully comfortable and actually look very neat - although they weight considerably more than most modern shoes.
I also wear women's lace-ups with low-to-medium heels, but they are difficult to find, and I now buy dance shoes and put on outdoors-quality soles and heel-rubbers. But they are such poor quality now that they only last me a year. I am in the process of having a pair made for me, custom-fitted to my bunions! Those should outlive me...

Men can easily buy good quality, comfortable, smart leather shoes that are good for their feet and last many years.... why can't women?!?!?

dolly84

I've been reading along and am also reading Julie Summers book. It has been a long time since I bought anything new except tights and underwear, all my clothes are second hand and I came across something interesting in the book about the second hand market. It seems that the government even had that covered, they stipulated that the maximum price chargeable for second hand items was the coupon value new x by 2 shillings, if it was more than that coupons had to be used. They quite literally thought of everything.


Last night I watched the BBC2 programme Made in Britain and it was about footwear, they showed how they made the military boots for WWII and also how they made other shoes, fascinating for social history buffs.

vintagegal

dolly84, I watched that programme too, it was very interesting.
I have a pair of Trickers and expect them to outlive me!

PipneyJane

Did you see? We made the MSE Newsletter this week.

dolly84 wrote: »

Last night I watched the BBC2 programme Made in Britain and it was about footwear, they showed how they made the military boots for WWII and also how they made other shoes, fascinating for social history buffs.

Yes. I was surprised at how short the history of shoes is. 400 years or so ago, we wore clogs or nothing.

The rest of the series is worth a watch, if you can catch it on iPlayer. It was originally broadcast before Christmas, so I'm surprised they're repeating it so quickly. I will never look at EPNS silver-plate in the same way ever again. It's really dangerous to make.

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Yikes - 48 coupons! :eek: I struggled on 66 last year - although I suppose if you'd spent your full allowance each year by then, you'd have been well supplied taking into account the comments above about fewer clothes and better quality.

Pip, I'm sure in wartime if things became available you bought whatever you could because you didn't know if it would be available again, so the jeans are in line with that.

Interesting point about boy's shoes - in photos of those years, you often see women wearing what would these days be considered quite clumpy and unflattering shoes with low heels and lace-up fronts (they look blissfully comfortable to me!).

Still only bought one pair of PJ bottoms so far.

I was surprised to read that the quality of fabric actually improved during the war. One tends to forget that the vast majority of the pre-War British population was incredibly poor. (We're all middle-class by comparison.) You can sell any-old-tat to the poor because they can't afford to be fussy.

Agreed re the jeans. I promise to wear them to death and to report upon that event in 6-10 years time.

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

I'm planning to try and keep a count of my chap's coupons this year because I suspect he may come in well under 66, and he has a range of clothes, some seasonal, some smarter or more casual, yet he seems not to "need" to buy new ones often.
After my mini-rant the other day in here I am now seriously considering the difference between modern men's and women's clothing, not just the iniquitous outrage of Stupid Pockets For Women, but also the quality of fabric and construction...



Roughly what I wear a lot of the time! I have a pair of men's lace-up brogues from, I think, the 1960s, handmade ones, Church's, and they are wonderfully comfortable and actually look very neat - although they weight considerably more than most modern shoes.
I also wear women's lace-ups with low-to-medium heels, but they are difficult to find, and I now buy dance shoes and put on outdoors-quality soles and heel-rubbers. But they are such poor quality now that they only last me a year. I am in the process of having a pair made for me, custom-fitted to my bunions! Those should outlive me...

Men can easily buy good quality, comfortable, smart leather shoes that are good for their feet and last many years.... why can't women?!?!?

Women's shoes are generally terrible. I wore a uniform to work in Oz* so can't compare back to before I left Australia, but I've experienced pretty much every nightmare you can have in cheap leather shoes in the UK: thin soles that wore through after a month; newish court shoes that had stretched so much that I left one behind while walking up stairs at work; heels breaking off; shoes that rubbed my heels so much that I took them off to walk home...

These days, I tend to buy M&S loafers for work, but then, for three days a week, I'm a portacabin in the middle of a highway's depot, so loafers and handknitted socks under trousers are the order of the day. It's too cold not to wear them. (Speaking of which, here are my latest socks, knitted with some of the yarn purchased in New Zealand...




- Pip

* My nursing shoes were DMs.

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire

Thoroughly enjoyed Sewing Bee last night. I am so glad it is back. I was sat there watching it while I was making myself some summer culottes out of some fabric I had in my stash. I have drafted the pattern using the Lutterloh system so I really hope it fits okay. I'm not sure how much fabric I have used yet for this but once I know I will deduct the relevant coupons from my current tally.

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane wrote: »

Did you see? We made the MSE Newsletter this week.

Old Style thread of the week! Coo, well done Pip and everyone!

Does he give us extra coupons for being Thread of the Week, though?

No?

Oh well, always worth asking

Sayschezza

Declaring trousers and a skirt so another 13 coupons used. Now 40 used.

vintagegal

Crafty_Lisa_Hampshire wrote: »

Thoroughly enjoyed Sewing Bee last night. I am so glad it is back. I was sat there watching it while I was making myself some summer culottes out of some fabric I had in my stash. I have drafted the pattern using the Lutterloh system so I really hope it fits okay. I'm not sure how much fabric I have used yet for this but once I know I will deduct the relevant coupons from my current tally.

If it’s in your stash isn’t it coupon free??